afoot

UK/əˈfʊt/US/əˈfʊt/

adjectiveC1Common in everyday speech and writing · #8,203 of 15,258leans spoken

Afoot means happening or being planned. Something is afoot, plans afoot, mischief afoot.

It nearly always follows its noun — plans are afoot — and it carries a hint of secrecy, which is why the game is afoot became a detective's line. The literal sense is on foot, walking. Note that it is a- plus foot, formed like ahead and asleep.

Definitions of afoot

1adjectiveafootHappening or being planned.C1
“The children's giggling told her that something was afoot.”

afoot is a state of being under way.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*ped-
Proto-Indo-European
*pṓds
Proto-Germanic
*fōts
Proto-West Germanic
*fōt
Old English
fōt
Middle English
fot
English
foot
English, today
afoot

From a- + foot. foot comes from Middle English fot, fote, foot, from Old English fōt, from Proto-West Germanic fōt, from Proto-Germanic fōts, from Proto-Indo-European pṓds. a doublet of pes and pie and pous. 2

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

afoot in the wild

Acmon, a mischievous forest creature who lived in Thermopylae or on Euboea but roamed the world and might turn up anywhere mischief was afoot.
Acmon
The fleet-afoot 1984 Gold Glove Award winner was also known as "the Deer", to fans at Chicago's Wrigley Field.
Bob Dernier
Recently plans have been set afoot to complete the memorial.
Memorial Stadium (Asheville)
Plans were afoot to merge Ysgol Tre-Gib with Llandovery's Ysgol Pantycelyn, with the new school being called Ysgol Dyffryn Tywi.
Ysgol Tre-Gib
As of 2012, the department had seven fire stations across the city and plans were afoot to build six more.
Chandigarh Fire and Emergency Services

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

← Vocabulary