The Problem with Going Barefoot

It's semantic.
One MAIN problem is that IT HAS A NAME: BARE (foot).
We don't say "I'm going BAREhanded" today (not wearing gloves).
We don't say, "I'm going bare-legged today" (wearing shorts).
But because feet is one of the last area of the body, historically/culturally, to be uncovered (even with flips), it has been given a name.
BARE = nudity/sex/exposure/public embarrassment.
In boxing, if a fighter doesn't use gloves, in that context one might say "barehanded." But that's pretty limited in public appreciation.
No wonder people have/cause grief with it.

 

I dunno, the bare part of it all is my favorite part.

 

Name or no name, many people do not handle it well. Is it their problem, yes. Do we need to deal with it, yes. One of the rare times when being ill informed, inflexible and ill mannered bears no penalty.

 

hm. this may by true for the english speaking and the german, but not for other languages (italian, spanish, portuguese, greek...) in which the (most used) word meaning barefoot suggests the lack of footwear but does not recall 'nudity' . that's just my naked eye feeling

 

Correct: "descalzo" (Spanish) means "descalced," an old Latin-based word meaning, literally, without footwear. But as many of us live in a (linguistically) Germanic environment, BAREfoot is a really "charged" term.

 

Indeed... as can be looked up in an etymology dictionary:

bare

Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English bær; cognate with Old Frisian ber, Dutch baar, Old Saxon, Old High German, German bar, Old Norse berr, Lithuanian bãsas barefoot, Russian bos; akin to Armenian bok naked.

So, "barefoot" is basically the same as the modern German "barfuß"

Synonyms
1. undressed. 2. plain, stark, empty, barren. Bare, stark, barren share the sense of lack or absence of something that might be expected. Bare, the least powerful in connotation of the three, means lack of expected or usual coverings, furnishings, or embellishments: bare floor, feet, head. Stark implies extreme severity or desolation and resultant bleakness or dreariness: a stark landscape; a stark, emotionless countenance. Barren carries a strong sense of sterility and oppressive dullness: barren fields; a barren relationship. 6. See mere1 . 8. uncover, expose.

In the sense of this list of synonyms, "bare" is at least a weaker adjective than "nude" or "naked". Interestingly, English knows the weak form "bare feet", whereas in German we talk about "nackte Füße" (literally, "naked feet").
I guess, when being concerned about the connotation of nudity and feet, us deutsch people should be even more concerned than the Anglophone world...


Mit nackten Zehen wackelnd,

~*Ganesha*~

(Source: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bare )

 

same for italian, we say 'scalzo' or less frequently 'piedi nudi' , equal to "nackte Füße" . again the same for latin ( discalceatus - nudos pedes)