Footganger

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A juvenile locust or grasshopper while in its wingless or flightless phase.

    "Midway between Bloomfontein and Kimberley, while riding with Major Beresford, of the South African Constabulary, at the foot of some low hills in the Karoo bush, I came across great numbers of the footgangers."

Example

More examples

"Midway between Bloomfontein and Kimberley, while riding with Major Beresford, of the South African Constabulary, at the foot of some low hills in the Karoo bush, I came across great numbers of the footgangers."

Etymology

Perhaps from Dutch or Afrikaans voetganger (“pedestrian”, literally “foot-goer”), or a partial calque of German Fußgänger (“pedestrian”), equivalent to foot + ganger (“goer, walker, stepper”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.