Meaning
To begin a relationship, project or undertaking badly, most often with an unfortunate first impression between two people. The standard opposite is 'get off on the right foot'. It is very frequently used in the past tense about how something started. Neutral, everyday register; almost always about beginnings and first impressions. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The Phrase Finder traces the wrong foot to 1590, in Richard Harvey's 'Plaine Perceuall the peace-maker of England': 'Thou putst the wrong foote before'. Shakespeare played on the counterpart a few years later in King John (1595) with 'the better foot before'. Why one foot should be unlucky is not documented. Popular explanations cite the long-standing cultural bias against the left: Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898) records a supposed Pythagorean rule about extending the right foot first when putting on sandals, and a superstition against entering a house left foot foremost, but the Phrase Finder's author notes he found no supporting evidence for the Greek story. A military explanation, that soldiers must all step off on the same foot, is likewise plausible but unproven. Both should be treated as after-the-fact rationalisations of an idiom whose documented core is simply the inverse of 'best foot forward'.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- begin on the wrong foot
- start off on the wrong foot
- start on the wrong foot
Usage Examples
- The new manager and the design team got off on the wrong foot when he cancelled their flagship project in week one.
- I got off on the wrong foot with my neighbour by parking in her space on moving day.
- The negotiations started off on the wrong foot but recovered after the lunch break.