galosh

Etymology

From Middle English galoche, from Old French galoche (“shoe with a wooden sole”), but further history is uncertain. further theories * From Vulgar Latin *galopium or Late Latin calopedia (“a wooden shoe; a shoe with a wooden sole”), from Ancient Greek καλοπόδιον (kalopódion), diminutive of καλόπους (kalópous, “shoemaker's block”), compound of κᾶλον (kâlon, “wood”) and πούς (poús, “foot”). (More at holt and foot.) * From Late Latin gallicula, diminutive of Latin gallica (solea) (“Gallic (sandal)”). * From Old French galette (“flat round cake”), from galet (“pebble”).

noun

1. An overshoe or boot worn in wet weather:
   1. (Britain) A waterproof overshoe used to provide protection from rain or snow.
   2. (US) A waterproof rubber boot, intended to be worn in wet or muddy conditions.
2. A gaiter, or legging, covering the upper part of the shoe and part of the leg.

verb

1. (intransitive) To walk while wearing, or as if wearing, galoshes; to splash about.
   My mother, at the age of seventeen, took them on single-handed, galoshing her way through the mud with bundles of tracts, not necessarily religious but always uplifting, and generous supplies of calves' foot jelly. 1979, Penelope Mortimer, About Time: An Aspect of Autobiography, page 36