sockprint

English

Etymology

From sock +‎ print.

Noun

sockprint (plural sockprints)

1. The impression left by a sock.
   • 1964, Iain Adamson, A Man of Quality: A Biography of the Hon. Mr. Justice Cassels, London: Frederick Muller Limited, page 174:

     Some of the uprights in the banister were broken, and so much of Wheeler’s blood had been spilt that the soles of his bare feet were covered in blood, while the route his opponent had taken downstairs after the fight was over was marked by his bloody sockprints.

   • 1986, “United States v. Ferri”, in The Federal Reporter, pages 988–989:

     Dr. Lovejoy’s testimony indicated that although he does not employ Dr. Robbins’ precise methods for identifying footprints, he has on at least one prior occasion testified about footprint identification, employing a footprint exemplar to identify the defendant on the basis of a sockprint left at the scene of the crime.

   • 2003, Jens Soering, “Intermezzo”, in The Way of the Prisoner: Breaking the Chains of Self Through Centering Prayer and Centering Practice, New York, N.Y.: Lantern Books, →ISBN, section 1 (The Investigation), page 106:

     Almost all the prints on the kitchen, dining room and living room floors had been wiped away in what must have been an extensive attempt to cover the killer’s (or killers’) tracks, but three very smeared impressions in the blood remained: two were sockprints corresponding to “a size 6½ to 7½ woman’s shoe or a size 5 to 6 man’s shoe,” and the last one was a sneakerprint of a size that fit a “woman or small boy.”