Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
footling [foo t-ling] ExamplesWord Origin adjective Informal.
- foolish; silly: ridiculous, footling remarks.
- trifling or useless.
Origin of footling First recorded in 1895–1900; footle + -ing2 footle [foo t-l]Informal. verb (used without object), foot·led, foot·ling.
- to act or talk in a foolish or silly way.
noun
- nonsense; foolishness; silliness.
Origin of footle 1890–95; origin uncertain; cf. footy Examples from the Web for footling Historical Examples of footling
Seems as if everything were too small and footling to matter.
Mary Cholmondeley
I wouldn’t lose this day at Pompeii for a shipload of footling schoolmasters.
M. Leonora Eyles
“I s’pose we’ll just keep on footling about here till the blooming war’s over,” he growled.
Rolf Bennett
Only a couple of days ago I was compelled to take him off a case because his handling of it was so footling.
P. G. Wodehouse
For the life of me, I can’t see why we should carry these footling little nations on our shoulders.
War Letters of a Public-School Boy
Paul Jones.
British Dictionary definitions for footling footling adjective
- informal silly, trivial, or petty
footle verb (intr)
- (often foll by around or about) to loiter aimlessly; potter
- to talk nonsense
noun
- rare foolishness
Word Origin for footle C19: probably from French foutre to copulate with, from Latin futuere Word Origin and History for footling footle v.
“to trifle,” 1892, from dialectal footer “to trifle,” footy “mean, paltry” (1752), perhaps from French se foutre “to care nothing,” from Old French foutre “to copulate with,” from Latin futuere, originally “to strike, thrust” (cf. confute). But OED derives the English dialect words from foughty (c.1600), from Dutch vochtig or Danish fugtig “damp, musty;” related to fog (n.).