tenderfoot

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an inexperienced newcomer, especially one unaccustomed to frontier, outdoor, or mining life

   The guide paired each tenderfoot with an experienced climber.

2. 2
   noun

   in some scouting organizations, a beginner or member holding an early rank

   As a tenderfoot, the scout first learned basic knots and camp safety.

A compound of tender + foot, first recorded in nineteenth-century American English for newcomers whose feet had not yet hardened to frontier, ranching, or mining conditions. It broadened to any inexperienced person and later became a scouting rank.

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