cold feet

At some time between the 1893 first edition and the 1896 second edition of his novel Maggie, a Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane added the earliest known instance of cold feet: "I knew this is the way it would be. They got cold feet."

The new slang term, referring to loss of courage or enthusiasm, appears also in George Ade's Artie, another novel of 1896: "'I see. He turned out to be a boodler [corrupt politician], eh?' 'I don't see no way o' gettin' past it. I like Jimmy. He's one o' them boys that never has cold feet and there's nothin' too good for a friend, but by gee, I guess when it comes to doin' the nice, genteel dip he belongs with the smoothest of 'em. And he learned it so quick, too. Ooh!'"

By the turn of the century, college students were getting cold feet too. A glossary of college terms published in 1901 includes this definition from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York: "'To get cold-feet in a subject,' abandon it for weariness."

In the West in the twentieth century it has also been possible to call a person cold-footed, as in an example from New Mexico, "you are cold-footed on this proposition of marriage." The term was noted by Elsie Warnock in her rhetoric classes in 1914-17 when she asked them to list twenty disparaging terms used in everyday speech.

An echo of cold-footed comes from a book with a Texas setting in 1920: "We were not allowed to cross the cattle on the bridge, so we had to swim for it. Two of my men stayed with me, and the third, a 'cold-footer,' crossed on the bridge."

Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Cold feet

Top

For other uses, see Cold feet (disambiguation).

Cold feet is apprehension or doubt strong enough to prevent a planned course of action.^[1]

The origin of the term itself has been attributed to American author Stephen Crane, who added the phrase, in 1896, to the second edition of his short novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.^[2]

The behaviour may be modelled as a tension between temptation and self control. If pessimism increases as the point of no return approaches then the individual may balk and refuse to proceed.^[3] If they proceed regardless then buyer's remorse is the similar feeling experienced after the event.

Taking a bold decision rather than suffering indecision or cold feet is known as crossing the Rubicon.

Marriage

A common use of the phrase is when people fear the commitment of marriage and get cold feet before a wedding ceremony.^[4]

References

^ Tristan J. Loo (2006), Street Negotiation: How to Resolve Any Conflict Anytime, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=4bWcDvlQxC0C&pg=PA210
^ Barnhart, David K. (1997). America in So Many Words: Words That Have Shaped America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. p. 191. http://books.google.com/books?id=SYrJZLjgDmIC&pg=PA191&dq=%22cold+feet%22+%22stephen+crane%22&hl=en&ei=evbzS-26I8H48Abk0aG9Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=10&ved=0CFgQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=%22cold%20feet%22%20%22stephen%20crane%22&f=false.
^ Epstein, Larry G. and Kopylov, Igor (2007), "Cold Feet", Theoretical Economics 2: 231–259, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1527962
^ Tony Mathews (2003), There's More Than One Colo6666r in the Pew, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=DtQMUlmS2NAC&pg=PA7

External links

Look up cold feet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

"Expert Advice on Cold Feet" – Article from Brides Magazine
"Cold Feet Common in Brides-to-Be" ABC News Good Morning America, May 1, 2005
"When Did We Get 'Cold Feet'? The Germans had 'em first!", by Daniel Engber, Slate.com, May 3, 2005

This psychology-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Donate to Wikimedia

Related answers:

	How do you stop your feet getting cold? Read answer...
	What do you do when your feet are cold and they are itching and burning? Read answer...
	Why do my Legs ache when my feet are cold? Read answer...

Help us answer these:

	Why do your feet sweat and make your feet cold?
	What causes cold feet and tingling in feet?
	Do cows feet get cold?

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights:

		American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Roget's Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Houghton Mifflin Word Origins. America in So Many Words, by David K.Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Cold feet. Read more

	cold feet, get (Idiom)
	Running Wild (1995 Comedy Film)
	Reunion: Big Love (TV Episode) (2007 Comedy Drama TV Episode)