While on a road trip, a listener caught herself using the expression beat-feeting, as in We were beat-feeting it to New York and back. Might it have to do with the mode of transportation in the old Flintstones cartoon? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Beat-Feating”
We got an email from Gwen Williams who wrote,
I recently referred in a family text to a quick road trip from Minnesota to New York by saying that my niece and I were beet feeding it to New York and back.
And they realized, Grant, that they didn’t know the origin of that term.
They surmise that it might have come from the Flintstones, you know, in that cartoon where Fred’s driving the car and, you know, you just see his feet going.
But it turns out, Gwen, that it’s older than that.
It goes back at least to the 1940s.
It’s been mentioned in collections of campus slang from the 40s where beat feet means time to leave or leaving.
Hurry up and leave.
That’s perfect.
Yeah, because it’s almost like a drum sound.
Your feet on the ground when you’re running fast.
I’m thinking of a wooden floor maybe where you can just hear somebody thudding as they run.
Yeah, you’re literally beating the floor with your feet.
I like that.
But older than the Flintstones for sure.
For sure.
Well, beat feed it to the phone, 877-929-9673, or beat feed it to your email program, words@waywordradio.org.
