footer (noun)

[George Thompson]

The OED has:

*5.* With a numeral prefixed: A person or thing whose height or length is
of that number of feet; as *six-footer*, *twenty-one-footer*, etc.

1844   J. T. J. Hewlett *Parsons &
Widows*<https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1> II.
xxxiii. 263,   I..inquired of a second six-footer.

1892   *Daily News* <https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1> 21 July
3/6   The club also sailed a match for 21-footers on Tuesday.



 I offer:

. . . an authentic description of an *Irish hovel*, in America.  We have
understood, *unofficially*, that when the house of Fowley was searched by
the officers, sixteen boarders were found in it, and not a bed in the house
-- the same room answering for bed room, parlour, kitchen & out house!  The
house is what is commonly called a ten-footer.  [guilty]
            N-Y American, August 4, 1825, p. 2, col. 4

            [a law regulating awnings is welcomed, if "some neat model" is
chosen:] they will not only add an air of neatness to our streets of
business and afford protection from the sun, but they will likewise be of
immense advantage to that class of unfortunates, commonly called
six-footers. . . .  ***

            N-Y Enquirer, April 5, 1828, p. 2, col. 2


 GAT

--
George A. Thompson
The Guy Who Still Looks Stuff Up in Books.
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998..

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org