Footpad

Footpad

A footpad is a robber or thief specializing in pedestrian victims. The term was used widely throughout the 16th century until the 19th century, but gradually fell out of common use. A footpad was considered a low criminal, as opposed to the riding highwaymen, who in certain cases might gain fame as well as notoriety. [The Guardian: "Stand and deliver: The history of the highwayman" [http://books.guardian.co.uk/lrb/articles/0,6109,709420,00.html] ]

Etymology

According to The American Heritage Dictionary, the origin of the term is not entirely clear, but it may be a concatenation of "foot" and the word "pad", related to "path." [ [http://www.tfd.com/footpad footpad - definition of footpad by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia ] ] This would indicate a robber who is on foot, as opposed to his equestrian counterpart.

The term has now fallen out of use and has, more or less, been replaced by the term "mugger."

In popular culture

Footpad is also the name of one of the Thieves' Guild ranks in the computer games "Oblivion" and "Morrowind".

References and External Links


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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Footpad — Foot pad , n. A highwayman or robber on foot. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • footpad — (n.) highway robber, 1680s, from FOOT (Cf. foot) (n.) + pad pathway, from M.Du. pad way, path, from P.Gmc. *patha way, path (see PATH (Cf. path)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • footpad — [foot′pad΄] n. [see PAD4] a highwayman who traveled on foot …   English World dictionary

  • footpad — pad pad (p[a^]d), n. [D. pad. [root]21. See {Path}.] 1. A footpath; a road. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] [1913 Webster] 2. An easy paced horse; a padnag. Addison [1913 Webster] An abbot on an ambling pad. Tennyson. [1913 Webster] 3. A robber that infests …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • footpad — /ˈfʊtpæd/ (say footpad) noun Obsolete a thief who robs on foot …  

  • footpad — I. noun Etymology: foot + pad highwayman, probably from 3pad Date: 1678 a criminal who robs pedestrians II. noun Etymology: foot + 1pad Date: 1966 a flattish foot on the leg of a spacecraft for distributing weight to minimize sinking into a… …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • footpad — /foot pad /, n., v., footpadded, footpadding. n. 1. a highwayman or robber who goes on foot. v.i. 2. to proceed stealthily on foot. [1675 85; FOOT + PAD2] * * * …   Universalium

  • footpad — noun a) The soft underside of an animals paw. The fraudulent clerk and the flash cracksman interchanged experiences. The smugglers stories of lucky ventures and successful runs were capped by the footpads reminiscences of foggy nights and stolen… …   Wiktionary

  • footpad — see PAD …   The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

  • footpad — n. thief, highway robber …   English contemporary dictionary

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