NAUTICAL SAYINGS FOOTLOOSE
Wednesday March 25th, 2009
FOOTLOOSE
No it has nothing to do with a certain 1984 Hollywood coming together of actor Kevin Bacon, musician Kenny Loggins and movie director Herbert Ross, although it is annoyingly difficult to get that damn song out of your head once you hear the word. And boy howdy Kev could move back then.
The well used phrase for being free-spirited derives from a ships sail. Or more specifically, the bottom of a ship’s sail, which was called the ‘foot’. I bet you can tell where this one’s going. The ‘foot’ was attached to lines called ‘foot lines’. When the foot lines came loose the sail began to flap freely and was said to be ‘footloose.’
