tenderfoot
nounEtymology From tender + foot. Refers to the delicate feet of newcomers to ranching or mining areas. First attested 1866.
2
Historical A newcomer or arriviste to the region in the American frontier (Old West and Wild West).
- Watson had risen so hurriedly that he had not been careful about his “tarp” and water had run into his bed. But that wouldn’t disconcert anybody but a tenderfoot.1914, Elinore Pruitt Stewart, Letters of a Woman Homesteader, Houghton Mifflin Company, page 173:
- "Lavender Cowboy," a pseudo folk song, is a tale of futility. It tells of a tenderfoot "with only two hairs on his chest," whose heroic attempt to prove his manhood results in his death.1991 August 31, Rudy Grillo, “Color Me Gay”, in Gay Community News, volume 19, number 7, page 10:
3
Dated A Boy Scout of the lowest rank.
- Derived terms
- tenderfootish, tenderfootism
- Related terms
- tenderfooted, cheechako, greenhorn, newbie