footstick

English

Etymology

foot +‎ stick

Noun

footstick (plural footsticks)

1. A measuring rod that is one foot long.

   Coordinate term: yardstick

   • 2008, Marja van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, ‎Kees Buys, Young Children Learn Measurement and Geometry, page 74:

     Every time, the bricklayers have to use their footstick to check whether the right height has been reached.

2. A piece of wood serving as a simple bridge over water.
   • 2017, Steve Lally, Monaghan Folk Tales:

     The wee man crossed the footstick to where Johnny was and took him back over to his side.

3. (printing, historical) A sloped or beveled piece of wood or metal placed against the foot of a page that is being typeset, and locked in place by quoins.
   • 1841, William Savage, A Dictionary of the Art of Printing, page 330:

     The footsticks may be a trifle shorter than the width of two pages and the gutter; for as there should always be a line of quadrats, or a reglet cut to measure, at the foot of each page, the footstick may be a pica shorter without danger, on this account, of any thing falling out, when the form is lifted and it thus prevents the side and foot sticks from binding when locked up.

   • 1863, H. Morgan, A Dictionary of Terms Used in Printing, page 53:

     Neither the sidestick nor the footstick should project beyond the other, as it will prevent the quoins from passing, and in unlocking will give a great deal of trouble.

   • 1884, John Southward, Practical Printing: A Handbook of the Art of Typography, page 138:

     In using common footsticks and sidesticks, however, the broad part of the sidestick would be at the top left-hand corner of the left side section of the forme, and the broad part of the footstick at the lower right-hand corner.