lotus foot

English

Etymology

Calque of Chinese 蓮花腳／莲花脚 (liánhuājiǎo).

Noun

lotus foot (plural lotus feet)

1. A foot whose shape has been altered by footbinding.
   • 2002, George Harrison (lyrics and music), “Stuck Inside a Cloud”, in Brainwashed:

     Well I made some exhibition, I lost my will to eat / The only thing that matters to me is to touch your lotus feet

   • 2020 February 14, Antonia Malchik, “The Neglected Consequences of Foot-Binding”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     The tiny “lotus foot” in its delicate silken shoe was seen as one of the most attractive qualities in a prospective bride; the smaller the foot, the more sexually pleasing the girl was. More recent studies have shown that foot-binding was likely practiced not purely for the sake of marriage, but also to keep girls at home and engaged in handicrafts, such as spinning cotton, in order to contribute to their family’s income.

Related terms

• lotus shoe

Translations

foot whose shape has been altered by footbinding

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 蓮花腳／莲花脚 (liánhuājiǎo)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: lotusvoet (nl) m
• Estonian: lootose-jalg
• Finnish: lootusjalka
• French: pied bandé m
• German: Lotosfuß (de) m
• Kazakh: шиаяқ (şiaäq)
• Mongolian: лянхуа хөл (ljanxua xöl)
• Portuguese: pé de lótus m
• Spanish: pie de loto m