Chapter Foot-breadth to Fortiter in Re of F by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Foot-breadth to Fortiter in Re

Foot-breadth or Quern-biter. The sword of Thoralf Skolinson the Strong, a companion of Hako I. of Norway. (See Swords.)

Foot-lights To appear before the foot-lights. On the stage, where a row of lights is placed in front along the floor to lighten it up.

Foot Monsters In the Italian romance of Guerino Meschino Indians are spoken of with feet so large that they carry them over their heads like umbrellas.

Foot-notes Notes placed at the bottom of a page.

"A trifling sum of misery
Now added to the foot of thy account."
Dryden.

Foot-pound The unit of result in estimating work done by machinery. Thus, if we take 1 lb. as the unit of weight and 1 foot as the unit of distance, a foot-pound would be 1 lb. weight raised 1 foot.

Foot of a Page The bottom of it, meaning the notes at the bottom of a page.

Footing He is on good footing with the world. He stands well with the world. This is a French phrase, Être sur un grand pied dans le monde. "Grand pied" means "large foot," and the allusion is to the time of Henry VIII., when the rank of a man was designated by the size of his shoe - the higher the rank the larger the shoe. The proverb would be more correctly rendered, "He has a large foot in society."
   To pay your footing. To give money for drink when you first enter on a trade. Entry money for being allowed to put your foot in the premises occupied by fellow-craftsmen. This word is called foot-ale by ancient writers. (See Garnish.)

Footman's Wand (A). (See Running Footmen.)

Footmen (See Running Footmen .)

Fop's Alley The passage between the tiers of benches, right and left, in the Opera-house, frequented by mashers and other exquisites.

Foppington (Lord). An empty coxcomb in Vanbrugh's Relapse, of which Sheridan's Trip to Scarborough is a modified version.

"The shoemaker in the Relapse tells Lord Foppington that his lordship is mistaken in supposing that his shoe pinches." - Lord Macaulay.

Forbears Ancestors, predecessors - i.e. those born before the present generation. (Anglo-Saxon, fór-béran.)

"My name is Græme, so please you, - Roland Græme, whose forbears were designated of Heathergill, in the Debateable Land." - Sir W. Scott: The Abbot, chap. xviii.

Forbës, referred to by Thomson in his Seasons, was Duncan Forbes, of Culloden, lord president of the Court of Session. For many years he ruled the destinies and greatly contributed to the prosperity of Scotland. He was on friendly terms with Pope, Swift, Arbuthnot, etc. The word is now generally pronounced as a monosyllable.

"Thee, Forbës, too, whom every worth attends...
Thy country feels thro' her reviving arts,
Planned by thy wisdom, by thy soul informed."
Thomson: Autumn.

Forbidden Fruit (The), Mahometan doctors aver, was the banana or Indian fig, because fig-leaves were employed to cover the disobedient pair when they felt shame as the result of sin. Called "Paradisaica." Metaphorically, unlawful = forbidden indulgence.

Forcible Feeble School (See Feeble .)

Ford Mr. and Mrs. Ford are characters in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Mrs. Ford pretends to accept Sir John Falstaff's protestations of love, in order to punish him by her devices.