trench foot
1
8.4
- noun
- /trɛnʧ fʊt/
- Specialized
:
pie de trinchera
- After days of rain, many of the troops developed trench foot, which caused severe pain and swelling in their feet.
Examples
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Eight guys in the 2nd Platoon got trench foot.
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You got trench foot or something.
Fiction book (1999) -
Just my luck, I'll get trench foot because of this.
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Don't want you getting trench foot out there.
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What's the matter, you don't like trench foot?
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Was trench foot in France a worse fate than typhus in Kut?
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Soldiers on the front lines often faced the risk of trench foot due to the cold and wet conditions they endured.
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The doctor explained that trench foot can occur when feet are continuously exposed to cold, damp, and unsanitary conditions.
Synonyms
A foot injury from being in cold, wet places for a long time without freezing
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound 'trench foot' is directly built from 'trench' (a narrow ditch) + 'foot' (a body part) and denotes a foot problem associated with being in trenches; this is a transparent place-origin/cause + body-part composition. Cross-linguistically and in English noun-noun compounds this pattern is common, so a B1 learner who knows the two constituents can reasonably infer it is a medical condition affecting the feet after exposure in trenches (even if they lack specific clinical details).
Etymology
The term trench foot comes from World War I, when soldiers stood for long times in muddy trenches with cold, wet feet, and their feet began to hurt, swell, and go numb. So the name now means a 'medical condition' caused by long exposure to cold, wet, and dirty conditions.