Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2018 October 6

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October 6

Foot perfect

Where did the term “foot perfect” originate please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.124.45.63 (talk) 20:05, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

I'd never heard of this expression. The only relevant reference I can find is a question on the Language desk from 2010, from which I learn that it comes from horse-racing. AndrewWTaylor (talk) 20:20, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

Here's a 1940 newsreel clip showing soldiers getting pedicures, after which they are said to be "foot perfect".[1] ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 21:09, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

It's a description of something done extremely accurately, particularly a pass of the ball from one player to another in a football game. And the expression appears to cross the football code boundaries. I found it in the Oxford Dictionary - https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/inch-perfect. A recently retired Australian rules football commentator, Dennis Cometti, adapted it to become one of his catch-cries here in metricated Australia with "centimetre perfect" - https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/sep/29/centremetre-perfect-23-classic-dennis-cometti-afl-commentary-lines. Google tells me it also seems to have something to do with motocycle trials in the UK, but I'm not into that sport so shall leave it to others to expand on that. HiLo48 (talk) 23:18, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

The expression I am familiar with in the UK is "inch perfect" - foot perfect sounds like a humorous way of suggesting that something is not really very accurate at all! Wymspen (talk) 09:57, 8 October 2018 (UTC)