A Canadian listener’s boyfriend has a special talent. He can remove his socks, roll them up, and throw them across the room into the laundry basket, all with his toes. She says he has toe dexterity, but wonders if the word dexterous can apply to feet as well as hands? Martha notes that great soccer players like Argentina’s Lionel Messi are simply called dexterous, although nimble and agile are also appropriate adjectives. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Dexterous Extremities”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Oh, hi. My name’s Jera, and I’m calling from Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Whoa, hello.
Hi.
Hi.
Jera?
Yep, it’s like Sarah with a J.
Oh, cool.
Cool. What can we do for you, Jera?
So, my boyfriend is very proud of a weird skill he has,
Which is that he can take off his socks and roll them together
And throw them across the room using only his toes.
And I commented that he had great toe dexterity.
But then I was thinking about it, and I was actually wondering where the words dexterous and dexterity come from.
And can they be applied to feet, or do they only apply to hands?
And if they only apply to hands, is there a different word for having toe dexterity?
Wow. Now, Jarrah, you said that he could throw the socks across the room with his toes?
He takes them off with his toes. He rolls them up and throws them across the room.
Yeah.
And have you trained him to throw them into the laundry basket? That’s my question.
I think that’s usually the goal.
Yeah.
How long does one have to practice to accomplish this?
I haven’t really asked him that. I think it’s something that just sort of came naturally.
I was going to say, because if he’d spend the same amount of time, say, learning physics,
He could be working for a space agency right now.
Yeah.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s a very marketable skill, but he has lots of other of those, so it’s okay.
I can see that on his resume.
Hey, if he’s picking up his socks, he’s a keeper, right?
Yeah.
Is it only his socks, or does he pick up other things and throw them?
I mean, is he picking up balls of Lent and dust bunnies and that sort of thing?
Yesterday he took off his watch with his hands, but then he moved it to another place in the room using his toes.
My goodness.
He’s just a laugh a minute, isn’t he?
And is he dexterous?
Would you say he’s dexterous, Martha?
I would say he’s dexterous.
He has dexterity.
He has dexterity.
And it’s not manual dexterity because that’s dexterity of the hands.
So what is it then?
Petal dexterity?
Petal.
You know, I didn’t think of it being anything more specific than just dexterity.
I mean, I think of Messi playing for Argentina soccer or Marta for the soccer team in Los Angeles.
I would say they have dexterity.
I don’t know that I would specify.
We’re agreed here, Jero.
You can have dexterity of the feet.
It doesn’t have to be just the hands.
But you might also say that somebody is nimble or agile.
There are other words for this that are a little more associated with full body dexterity, right?
Mm—
And here’s an old word I wanted to share with you.
It’s obsolete, but I’m going to share it anyway, just because it sounds similar to what we’re talking about.
It’s feedious.
What?
F-E-A-T-E-O-U-S.
Feedious.
It means dexterous.
Well, I think that’s the word for toe dexterity then.
Feedious.
Just change the A to an E.
Yeah, the wrong company might be taken the wrong way, but yeah.
I like it.
Jarrah with the dexterous boyfriend.
Best of luck to you both.
I hope you get married and have dexterous children.
Thanks a lot.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Okay, thanks.
Okay, bye.
Well, that’s really impressive.
And we didn’t even talk about the origin of the word dexterous.
It comes from the TV show, right?
Yes.
No, it comes from the Latin for right, right hand.
Oh, yeah, very good.
Dexter.
Dexter, yeah.
And the left hand in Latin was sinister or sinistra.
Yeah, right.
If you’re listening in Canada, our number works there, too.
Or send us an email to words@waywordradio.org.
