itchy feet
to want to travel
TRANSLATION
itchy feet = das Fernweh, die Wanderlust, Reisekribbeln fühlen
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
With the European Commission's mandate due to end about a year from now, some of its members are getting ITCHY FEET as they worry about their own political futures.
(The Irish Times)
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"We were with the band in Nashville for three or four years and then Jimi finally got ITCHY FEET."
(Billy Cox, who played with guitar legend Jimi Hendrix in the 60s)
Did you
know?
itchy feet
idiom
- to want to travel or do something different
(Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms)
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WORD ORIGIN
The adjective itchy means to be restless, nervous or impatient. The verb "itching" is frequently used to indicate when a person cannot wait to do something (He is itching to go on vacation to Hawaii.) The noun "itch" is also used in a similar sense of getting the urge to do something (He got the itch to go to Spain.)
So if someone has "itchy feet", they are impatient about or get the urge to go somewhere or do something different (He got itchy feet and decided to go to Australia to work for a couple of years).
Itchy feet is also expressed as having "wanderlust" (from the German wander = travel + lust = desire) or Klondike fever, a reference to the gold rush along the Klondike River in Yukon Canada which attracted many adventurers with itchy feet.
Jazz trumpeter, Herb Alpert, put a different twist on this expression when he was asked about how a new album was being received: "The reaction to this album has just been fabulous... and I've had offers to perform from around the world and I'm tempted to do it. I've got itchy lips."
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PRACTICE OWAD TODAY
Say something like:
"Some people like to stay in one place their whole life, but I’ve always had ITCHY FEET."
