subs. (common).—Money paid on entering upon new duties, or on being received into a workshop or society: as at sea when a comrade first goes aloft. Formerly FOOT-ALE: cf., GARNISH. Fr., arroser ses galons = to christen one’s uniform.
1777. HOWARD, State of the Prisons in England and Wales, quoted in J. ASHTON’S The Fleet, p. 295. A cruel custom obtains in most of our Gaols, which is that of the prisoners demanding of a new comer Garnish, FOOTING, or (as it is called in some London Gaols) Chummage.
1781. G. PARKER, A View of Society, I., 48. I must instantly pay down two shillings for my FOOTING.
1788. G. A. STEVENS, The Adventures of a Speculist, i., 211. I was drove from street to street by women of my own profession, who swore I should not come in their beats until I had paid my FOOTING.
1828. G. GRIFFIN, The Collegians, ch. v. ‘Pay your FOOTING, now, Master Kyrle Daly, before you go farther,’ said one.
1840. HALIBURTON (‘Sam Slick’), The Clockmaker, 3 S., ch. iii. ‘Waiter, half-a-dozen of iced champagne here, to pay for Mr. Slick’s FOOTIN’.’
1891. W. C. RUSSELL, An Ocean Tragedy, p. 86. I was going aloft and wished to PAY MY FOOTING.
