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Mr. Tom Posted 13 years ago
Vocabulary

The use of "sure-footed" or "foot-sure"

Hi

Is the use of "sure-footed" OK in these sentences?

A - How did you fall?
B - I wasn't sure-footed enough, I suppose.

2) Please be foot-sure; the floor is very slippery.

3) She wasn't very foot-sure during the speech.

Thanks,

Tom
  

Top answer

Sure-footed: describes an animal or person who is steady on their feet and not prone to falling. We use sure-footed donkeys to carry precious packages on the steep mountain trails. Foot-sure - does not exist.

— AlpheccaStars

  • Sure-footed: describes an animal or person who is steady on their feet and not prone to falling.
  • We use sure-footed donkeys to carry precious packages on the steep mountain trails.
  • Foot-sure - does not exist.
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6 Answers
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Sure-footed: describes an animal or person who is steady on their feet and not prone to falling.

We use sure-footed donkeys to carry precious packages on the steep mountain trails.

Foot-sure - does not exist.
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Thanks, Alphecca Stars!

Am I to understand from your response that footsure is uncommon (or perhaps very rare) on your side of the pond? Because when I was going through my dictionaries to understand the use of sure-footed, each showed footsure as a synonym for sure-footed. For example:

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I have never used it. I don't remember ever seeing it, either. I always use "sure-footed."
It sounds too much like footsore.
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I've never encountered footsure in my life, in AmE or BrE..

Clive
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In the American Corpus, it appears twice. Once in a Science Fiction fantasy:

Down he walked, dazed but footsure, stepping down through eons of mist and shadow.
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"Footsure" is in the Shorter Oxford without comment as "sure-footed". To me, it sounds like it should be in The Hobbit or something. I can't see myself using it in standard prose.
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