Re: stocking/stockinged feet
- From: Mike M <mikmooney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2007 13:36:42 -0000
On 31 Jul, 13:03, "Philip Eden" <philipATweatherHYPHENukDOTcom> wrote:
I went out into the garden early this dry and sunny morning with no
shoes on, only to discover there'd been a heavy dew overnight. Very
uncomfortable.
The usual way of describing such an activity is (for me, at least)
"in my stockinged feet", which suddenly struck my British ear as an
anachronism since men in the UK don't (often) wear stockings.
Yet "in my socked feet" is clearly unidiomatic.
Checking my desk dictionary (Collins) revealed a reference
only to "stocking feet" and google gives about 4:1 stocking:stockinged.
I know we've visited the dropping of the "d" in these circumstances
many times before, but I have to admit that "stocking feet" sounds
decidedly odd to me. Perhaps I just need to get out more.
My Dad was born in Ireland in 1904, and he *always* referred to men's
socks as "stockings".
Without an OED check, I'm guessing that "socks" is a far more recent
word.
Mike M
.
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