flaxfote

• floxfōte

Uncertain. Likely from *flax (“a weave, web”), from Proto-West Germanic *flahts, derived from Proto-Germanic *flehtaną (“to weave, plait”) +‎ -fōte.

• IPA^(key): /ˈflɑksˌfoː.te/

flaxfōte

1. web-footed

   Synonym: flohtenfōte

   • c. 1000, Ælfric of Eynsham, transl., Hexameron of St. Basil‎^[1]:

     Đa fugelas sōðlīċe ðe on flōdum wuniað, syndon flaxfōte, bē Godes foresċeawunge, ðæt hī swimman magon and sēcan him fōdan. Sume bēoð langswēorede swā swā swanas and ylfettan ðæt hī aræċan him magon mete bē ðām grunde. And ða ðe bē flǣsċe lybbað, syndon clyferfēte and sċearpe ġebilode, ðæt hī bītan magon on sċeortum swuran and swyftran on flihte, ðæt hī ġelimplīċe bēon tō heora līfes tilungum.

     Truly, the birds that live in the waters are web-footed by God's forethought, so that they can swim and seek food for themselves. Some, such as swans, are long-necked, so that they can reach food on the ground. And those that live on flesh are claw-footed, sharp-billed so that they can bite with short necks, and swifter in flight, such that they can properly perform the labors of their life.

• Joseph Bosworth; T. Northcote Toller (1898), “flax-fóte”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, second edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.