E. Cobham Brewer 18101897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Put the shoe on the right foot first. The twelfth symbol of the Protreptics of Iamblichus. This audition is preserved in our word awkward, which means left-handed (awke, the-left hand), seen also in the French gauche. Pythagoras meant to teach that his disciples should walk discreetly and wisely, not basely and feebly or gauchely.