last

From Middle English laste, latst, syncopated variant of latest.

the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last

“Eyes Wide Shut” was the last film to be directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

Final, ultimate, coming after all others of its kind.

rear, rearmost, caboose, dernier, final, terminal, ultimate, lattermost;


last

It's Wednesday, and the party was last Tuesday; that is, not yesterday, but eight days ago.

When you say last Monday, do you mean the Monday just gone, or the one before that?

(of days of the week or months of the year) Closest in the past, or closest but one if the closest was very recent; of days, sometimes thought to specifically refer to the instance closest to seven days (one week) ago, or the most recent instance before seven days (one week) ago.


last

From Old English lǣste, Proto-Germanic *laistiz. Compare Swedish läst, German Leisten Dutch leest, Proto-Germanic *laistaz (“footprint”).

2006, Newman, Cathy, Every Shoe Tells a Story, National Geographic (September, 2006), 83,
How is an in-your-face black leather thigh-high lace-up boot with a four-inch spike heel like a man's black calf lace-up oxford? They are both made on a last, the wood or plastic foot-shaped form that leather is stretched over and shaped to make a shoe.

A tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes.


tongue

en-noun

tongue (countable and uncountable, plural tongues)

Australian Kriol: tang

Bislama: tang

Sranan Tongo: tongo

Tok Pisin: tang

Torres Strait Creole: tang

From Middle English tonge, tunge, tung, from Old English tunge, from Proto-West Germanic *tungā, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ (“tongue”) (compare West Frisian tonge, Dutch tong, Luxembourgish Zong, German Zunge, Yiddish צונג (tsung), Danish tunge, Norwegian Bokmål tunge, Swedish tunga, Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍉 (tuggō)), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s. Cognate with Old Irish tengae, Latin lingua, Tocharian A käntu, Tocharian B kantwo, Lithuanian liežùvis, Russian язык (jazyk), Polish język, Old Armenian լեզու (lezu), Avestan 𐬵𐬌𐬰𐬎𐬎𐬁 (hizuuā), Persian زبان (zabân), Ashkun žū, Kamkata-viri dić, Sanskrit जिह्वा (jihvā́). Doublet of language and lingua.

puhe

uncountable: discourse, fluency of speech

(colloquial)

He was speaking in his native tongue.

[…] that great Towre, which is so much renownd
For tongues confusion in holie writ,

1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “The Ruines of Time”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. […], London: […] William Ponsonbie, […], →OCLC:

When I pointed to any thing, she told me the Name of it in her own Tongue, so that in a few Days I was able to call for whatever I had a mind to.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, (please specify |part=I to IV), page [178]:

To dwell on a heath without studying its meanings was like wedding a foreigner without learning his tongue.

1878 January–December, Thomas Hardy, chapter 7, in The Return of the Native […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], published 1878, →OCLC:

“You should read Spanish,” he said. “It is a noble tongue. […]”

1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter LXXXVI, in Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:

If you do not speak English I am at your disposal with 187 other languages along with their various dialects and sub-tongues.

1956, Cyril Hume, Forbidden Planet, spoken by Robby the Robot:

Many of them come from distant places and although they speak your tongue they are ignorant of your customs.

1958, Chinua Achebe, chapter 23, in Things Fall Apart, New York: Astor-Honor, published 1959, page 200:

My grandfather, accustomed to the multifarious conjugations of ancient Greek verbs, had found English, for all its incoherence, a relatively simple tongue to master.

2002, Jeffrey Eugenides, Middlesex, New York: Picador, Book 2, p. 99:

Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 13:8:

(religion, often in the plural) Glossolalia.


heel

en-verb

heel (third-person singular simple present heels, present participle heeling, simple past and past participle heeled)

heels (present singular third-person)
heeling (participle present)
heeled (participle past)
heeled (past)

From Middle English hele, from Old English hēla, from Proto-West Germanic *hą̄hilō, from Proto-Germanic *hanhilaz, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *hanhaz (“heel, hock”), equivalent to hock + -le. More at hock.
Compare North Frisian haiel, West Frisian hyl, Dutch hiel, German Low German Hiel, Danish and Norwegian hæl, Swedish häl.

She called to her dog to heel.

To follow at somebody's heels; to chase closely.

To cause to follow at somebody’s heels (transitive).

I cannot sing,
 Nor heel the high lavolt.

c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iv], lines 85-86:

(transitive) To perform by the use of the heels, as in dancing, running, etc.


shoe

en-noun

shoe (plural shoes or (archaic, dialectal) shoon or (obsolete) shoen)

shoes (plural)
shoon (archaic dialectal plural)
shoen (obsolete plural)

From Middle English scho, sho, from Old English sċōh (“shoe”), from Proto-West Germanic *skōh, from Proto-Germanic *skōhaz (“shoe”), of unclear etymology; possibly a derivation from *skehaną (“to move quickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *skek- (“to move quickly, jump”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English sabatine, sabatoun (“shoe”) from Medieval Latin sabatēnum, sabatum (“shoe, slipper”) (compare Old Occitan sabatō, Spanish zapato (“shoe”), French sabot (“wooden shoe, clog”), Italian ciabatta). The archaic plural shoon is from Middle English shon, from Old English scōn, scōum (“shoes”, dative plural) and scōna (“shoes'”, genitive plural); it is cognate with Scots shuin (“shoes”). See also Scots shae, West Frisian skoech, Low German Schoh, Dutch schoen, German Schuh, Bavarian Schuach, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish sko, Tocharian B skāk (“balcony”).

skoen

something resembling a shoe (e.g. brake shoe)

you cannot put the same shoe on every foot

Get your shoes on now, or you'll be late for school.

(footwear) A protective covering for the foot, with a bottom part composed of thick leather or plastic sole and often a thicker heel, and a softer upper part made of leather or synthetic material. Shoes generally do not extend above the ankle, as opposed to boots, which do.

Throw the shoe from behind the line, and try to get it to land circling (a ringer) or touching the far stake.

A piece of metal designed to be attached to a horse's foot as a means of protection; a horseshoe.

The finest gold among them is 100 touch, called Sycee, i. e. pure gold without alloy: so that if a shoe of gold touch 93, then it hath 93 parts of fine gold and 7 parts alloy.

1806, Lawrence Dundas Campbell, E. Samuel, The Asiatic Annual Register, page 56:

Something resembling a shoe in form, position, or function, such as a brake shoe.

(historical) An ingot of gold or silver shaped somewhat like a traditional Chinese shoe, formerly used in trade in the Far East.


boot

Solombala English: бучь (bučʹ)

→ Maltese: buz

→ Russian: бутса (butsa)

→ Serbo-Croatian:

Cyrillic script: бу́це

Latin script: búce

→ Swahili: buti

From Middle English boote, bote (“shoe”), from Old French bote (“a high, thick shoe”). Of obscure origin, but probably related to Old French bot (“club-foot”), bot (“fat, short, blunt”), from Old Frankish *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz, *butaz (“cut off, short, numb, blunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewt-, *bʰewd- (“to strike, push, shock”); if so, a doublet of butt. Compare Old Norse butt (“stump”), Low German butt (“blunt, plump”), Old English bytt (“small piece of land”), buttuc (“end”). More at buttock and debut.

cog

couldn't pour water out of a boot with the instructions on the heel

(footwear) A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg.

(sports) A kind of sports shoe worn by players of certain games such as cricket and football (historically in the form of boots, now shorter, but still called the same).

Dr. Jayakar was not only one of them but was at places the prime mover in the historic decisions taken by a nation struggling to get free of the British boot.

Never in its long history, and one rich with brutal inequities too, had Paris known the disgrace of seeing one section of its community prosper under the boot of an invader

1989, Gilles Perrault, Pierre Azema, Paris Under the Occupation:

Chronic unrest in Ireland, long under the British boot, was about to culminate in a popular rising.

2013 October 8, Stanley Weintraub, Young Mr. Roosevelt: FDR's Introduction to War, Politics, and Life, Hachette UK, →ISBN:

(figurative, with definite article) Oppression, an oppressor.


boot

en-verb

boot (third-person singular simple present boots, present participle booting, simple past and past participle booted)

boots (present singular third-person)
booting (participle present)
booted (participle past)
booted (past)

When arriving at the office, the first thing I do is boot my machine.

(computing) To bootstrap; to start a system, e.g. a computer, by invoking its boot process or bootstrap.


boot

From bootleg (“to make or sell illegally”), by shortening.

I am looking to trade Iron Maiden boots. I have many Iron Maiden bootlegs. I have lots of Metallica. I trade CDR's, tapes and videos.

1999, Tom Fletcher, “Looking for Iron Maiden boot traders”, in alt.music.bootlegs (Usenet):


slide

→ Czech: slajd

→ Japanese: スライド (suraido)

→ Persian: اسلاید (eslâyd)

→ Polish: slajd

→ Portuguese: slide

From Middle English sliden, from Old English slīdan (“to slide”), from Proto-West Germanic *slīdan, from Proto-Germanic *slīdaną (“to slide, glide”), from Proto-Indo-European *sléydʰ-e-ti, from *sleydʰ- (“slippery”). Cognate with Old High German slītan (“to slide”) (whence German schlittern), Middle Low German slīden (“to slide”), Middle Dutch slīden (“to slide”) (whence Dutch slijderen, frequentative of now obsolete slijden), Vedic Sanskrit स्रेधति (srédhati, “to err, blunder”).

cog

(footwear) A sandal that is backless and open-toed.


spat

en-noun

spat (countable and uncountable, plural spats)

As spat-fall often occurs in areas away from environments suitable for oyster growing, the collection, transport and sale of oyster spat has developed into a separate industry.

2005, TVR Pillay, MN Kutty, Aquaculture: Principles and practices, page 525:

But Orata’s oysters were, like the dormice and fish, collected in the wild, as spat.

2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 243:

The spawn of shellfish, especially oysters and similar molluscs.

Conditions in pearl oyster hatcheries are optimized for growth and survival of spat.

If the spat are allowed to remain attached to the tank bottom for more than two days, they are difficult to remove without damage to the shell.

1988, Bivalve Mollusc Culture Research in Thailand, page 28:

A juvenile shellfish which has attached to a hard surface.


spat

en-verb

spat (third-person singular simple present spats, present participle spatting, simple past and past participle spatted)

spats (present singular third-person)
spatting (participle present)
spatted (participle past)
spatted (past)

(transitive, intransitive) To spawn, used of shellfish as above.


spat

1804. American English, probably imitative.

onomatopoeic

imitative

get into a trivial spat over punctuality

have a vicious spat with the cousins

2017 January 14, “Some Thais worry that a lasting power struggle is brewing. Others see a minor spat over language, which will quickly be forgotten.”, in The Economist:

The downside of this cost-saving strategy was that the train service could only be covered by goodwill. Whenever there was a spat between ASLEF and management - regardless of cause - the withdrawal of this goodwill became a stick with which unions could beat management.

2022 November 16, Graham Eccles, “The Rest Day Working saga...”, in RAIL, number 970, page 32:


spat

imitative

(originally US, intransitive) To quarrel or argue briefly.


lift

en-noun

lift (countable and uncountable, plural lifts)

→ Cantonese: 𨋢 /䢂 (lip¹)

→ Dutch: lift
→ Papiamentu: left

→ Malay: lif

desctree

→ Russian: лифт (lift)
→ Armenian: լիֆտ (lift)
→ Georgian: ლიფტი (lipṭi)
→ Kazakh: лифт (lift)
→ Mongolian: лифт (lift)
→ Uyghur: لىفت (lift)
→ Uzbek: lift
→ Yakut: лифт (lift)

→ Swahili: lifti

→ Swedish: lift

From Middle English liften, lyften, from Old Norse lypta (“to lift, air”, literally “to raise in the air”), from Proto-Germanic *luftijaną (“to raise in the air”), related to *luftuz (“roof, air”), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *lewp- (“to peel, break off, damage”) or from a root meaning roof (see *luftuz). Cognate with Danish and Norwegian Bokmål løfte (“to lift”), Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish lyfta (“to lift”), German lüften (“to air, lift”), Old English lyft (“air”). See above. 1851 for the noun sense "a mechanical device for vertical transport".
(To steal): For this sense Cleasby suggests perhaps a relation to the root of Gothic 𐌷𐌻𐌹𐍆𐍄𐌿𐍃 (hliftus) "thief", cognate with Latin cleptus and Greek κλέπτω (kléptō)).

der

Just to think he had both a mistress and a wife gave him a lift. He needed a lift, for although he'd had promotion, his wasn't an exciting job.

The dismissal of a player who left Arsenal for Manchester City before joining Tottenham gave the home players and fans a noticeable lift.

2012 November 17, “Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham”, in BBC Sport:


platform

From Middle French plateforme (“a flat form”), from plate (“flat”) (from Old French plat, from Ancient Greek πλατύς (platús, “flat”)) + forme (“form”) (from Latin fōrma (“shape; figure; form”)); compare flatscape.

Now open the album cover! How fabulous! The four of them [the Pointer Sisters] in platforms of death, tacky gowns, and "reflections of."

1973 August 25, Jim Fournier, “Lo♡in' Mu𝄚ic”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 10, page 2:

Walk to Shazzer's from polling station was hideous walk of shame. Also cannot wear platforms now as feet too crippled so will look short.

2001 [1999], Helen Fielding, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, New York: Penguin, →ISBN, page 167:

(footwear, in the plural) Ellipsis of platform shoe: a kind of high shoe with an extra layer between the inner and outer soles.


AAA

en-noun

AAA (countable and uncountable, plural AAAs)


sole

→ Hebrew: סוֹל (sol)

From Middle English sole, soole, from Old English sole, solu. Reinforced by Anglo-Norman sole, Old French sole, from Vulgar Latin *sola (“bottom of the shoe”, also “flatfish”), from Latin solea (“sandal, bottom of the shoe”), from Proto-Indo-European *swol- (“sole”). Cognate with Dutch zool (“sole, tread”), German Sohle (“sole, insole, bottom, floor”), Danish sål (“sole”), Icelandic sóli (“sole, outsole”), Gothic 𐍃𐌿𐌻𐌾𐌰 (sulja, “sandal”). Related to Latin solum (“bottom, ground, soil”). More at soil.

cog

The Caliga was a military Shoe, with a very thick Sole, tied above the instep with leather Thongs.

1727, John Arbuthnot, Tables of Ancient Coins, Weights and Measures. Explain'd and exemplify'd in several dissertations, page 147:

(footwear) The bottom of a shoe or boot.


Oxford

From Middle English Oxenford, Oxneford, from Old English Oxnaford (“Oxford”, literally “oxen's ford”), equivalent to ox + ford. Compare Old Norse Öxnafurða.

inh

University of Oxford
w:University of Oxford


Wellington

en-proper noun

Wellington (countable and uncountable, plural Wellingtons)

From earlier Weolingtun, from:
# For the place in Shropshire, England: Partly uncertain. The second element from Old English tūn (“estate”), while the first element could come either from *wœling (“ridge, bank”), or else from *wēoling (“device, artefact”).
# For the place in Somerset, England: Partly obscure. The last element from Old English tūn (“estate”), while the first element could come from either the personal name *Wēola + ing, or else *wēoling (“trap”).
# Many places with this name are named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, British soldier and statesman.

Any of several places in a select number of countries, including:

A town in the Western Cape, South Africa.


jackboot

On a huge tomb-like table in the middle of the room, lay two pencilled profiles of Mr. Fielding, a pawnbroker’s ticket, a pair of ruffles, a very little muff, an immense broadsword, a Wycherley comb, a jackboot, and an old plumed hat; […]

1829, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter V, in Devereux. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC:

There was a wonderful variety of costume to be seen and studied among the persons around me, […] other soldiers in helmets and jackboots; French officers of various uniform; monks and priests; attendants, in old-fashioned and gorgeous livery; […] so that, in any other country, the scene might have been taken for a fancy ball.

1858 February 19 (date written), Nathaniel Hawthorne, “February 19th [1858]”, in Passages from the French and Italian Note-books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, volume I, London: Strahan & Co., […], published 1871, →OCLC, page 98:

The coat itself, a long one of some fuzzy material, with huge side pockets into which the man's hands were plunged, reached to the cavernous tops of jackboots where the nether ends of his trousers were stowed away.

1914, Frank L. Packard, The Miracle Man, Chapter 3:

A glossy leather calf-covering military boot, commonly associated with German soldiers of the WWII era.


mule

→ Hawaiian: miula

→ Irish: miúil

→ Maori: miūru

From Middle English mule, from Anglo-Norman mule and Old English mūl, both from Latin mūlus, from Proto-Indo-European *mukslós. Compare Late Latin muscellus (“young he-mule”), Old East Slavic мъшкъ (mŭškŭ, “mule”), Ancient Greek (Phocian) μυχλός (mukhlós, “he-ass”), and German Maul Maultier, Maulesel (through Latin).

Any of a group of cocktails involving ginger ale or ginger beer, citrus juice, and various liquors.


thong

From Middle English thong, thwong, thwang, from Old English þwong, þwang, þweng, þwæng (“thong, band, strap, cord, strip of leather; phylactery”), from Proto-West Germanic *þwangi, from Proto-Germanic *þwangiz, *þwanguz (“coercion, constraint, band, clamp, strap”), from Proto-Indo-European *twenk- (“to squeeze, press, pressure”). Cognate with Scots thwang, thwayng, thang (“thong”), Middle Low German dwenge (“clamp, jaws, steel-trap”), German Zwinge (“vise, clamp”), Danish tvinge (“clamp”), dialectal Norwegian tveng (“shoestrap, shoelace”), Icelandic þvengur (“strap, thong, latchet”).

cog

Because of August he wears shorts and sandals, the Japanese geta sort called thongs.

1963 March 16, Hal Porter, “Little old lady passing by”, in The Bulletin, page 22, column 3:

T-shirts, cut-offs, and a pair of thongs (T-shirts, cut-offs, and a pair of thongs).

2006, Peter Murray, David Poole, Grant Jones, Contemporary Issues in Management and Organisational Behaviour, Thomson, page 108,
Players turned up for questioning wearing thongs, shorts and T-shirts.

Thongs are the favoured footwear for many Aussies, especially near the beaches, but most people in the Outback find that they can't put a foot wrong with a tough, nicely worn-in pair or workboots.

2008, Steve Parish, Eccentric Australia, page 104:

You shouldn′t face condescension if you rock into a boutique in your thongs and a singlet, but neither will you be treated like a princess just because you've splashed $5000 on daddy's credit card.

2009, Charles Rawlings-Way, Sydney, Lonely Planet, page 126:

(usually in the plural, Australia) An item of footwear, usually of rubber, secured by two straps which join to pass between the big toe and its neighbour.

She was impressed by her friend's confidence to wear a thong on the crowded beach.

(UK, US) An item of clothing, usually an undergarment or swimwear consisting of very narrow strips designed to cover just the genitals and nothing more.

The largest section of a bullwhip constructed of many straps of braided leather.


jandal

Blend of Japanese + sandal, originally a trademarked name.

(New Zealand) A flip-flop (type of footwear)


flip-flop

→ Japanese: フリップフロップ (furippu-furoppu)

Onomatopoeic. Most probably an imitation of the sound produced when walking in them.

the necessity for yet another place at which to buy a polo shirt or a pair of flip-flops may not be apparent to the town's residents

30 August 2004, The New Yorker,, page 38

(US, UK, Fiji) A sandal consisting of a rubber sole fastened to the foot by a rubber thong fitting between the toes and around the sides of the foot.

(slang, derogatory, offensive) A person or inhabitant of the Middle East, or a Muslim nation, particularly Afghanistan.


flip-flop

en-verb

flip-flop (third-person singular simple present flip-flops, present participle flip-flopping, simple past and past participle flip-flopped)

flip-flops (present singular third-person)
flip-flopping (participle present)
flip-flopped (participle past)
flip-flopped (past)

(idiomatic, transitive, intransitive) To alternate back and forth between directly opposite opinions, ideas, or decisions.


horseshoe

/ˈhɔːɹs.ʃuː/

From Middle English horsscho, horssho, horscho, hors schoo, equivalent to horse + shoe.

almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

close only counts in horseshoes and darts

close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

(Midland US) An open-faced sandwich originating from Springfield, Illinois, consisting of thick-sliced toasted bread, often Texas toast, a hamburger patty, French fries, and a cheese sauce.


rand

Named after Witwatersrand; the last element is Afrikaans rand (“ridge”), from Dutch rand, from Old Saxon rand, from Germanic *randaz. Compare Etymology 1, and Rand.
The sense of currency is because of gold that was extracted from the Witwatersrand rocks.

The currency of South Africa, divided into 100 cents.


moccasin

John Smith (explorer)
Louisville Zoo
Musée de l'Armée
Néstor Kirchner
President of Argentina

From Powhatan makasin, mockasin, mawhcasuns (plural), from Proto-Algonquian *maxkeseni. The word is cognate with Massachusett mohkisson, mokussin, Mi'kmaq mksɨn, Munsee mahkusin, Ojibwe makizin. First appears c. 1612 in the writings of John Smith. It has been suggested that sense 4 (“North American snake”) may be derived from a different Native American word.

refn

From the collection of the Musée de l'Armée in Paris, France.

The formal moccasins belonged to the former President of Argentina Néstor Kirchner (1950–2010) and are from the collection of the Museo del Bicentenario in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The term Chippewa, which is generally applied to this nation, is derived from that of O̓ˊche̓pe̓ˊwa̓g, which they restrict to the Indians who reside near Fond du Lac, it signifies plaited shoes, from the fashion among those Indians of puckering their moccassins.

1824, William H[ypolitus] Keating, “Account of the Chippewa Indians. Their Usages, Manners, and Customs.”, in A Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River, Lake Winnepeek, Lake of the Woods, &c. &c. […] In Two Volumes, volume II, Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea— […], →OCLC, page 151:

At length Chingachgook turned his eyes slowly towards his son, and demanded— / "Do the Maquas dare to leave the print of their moccasins in these woods?" / "I have been on their trail," replied the young Indian, "and know that they number as many as the fingers of my two hands; but they lie hid like cowards."

1826, [James Fenimore Cooper], chapter III, in The Last of the Mohicans; a Narrative of 1757. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea— […], →OCLC, page 38:

The moccasin is preëminently an Indian invention, and one of the highest antiquity. It is true to nature in its adjustment to the foot, beautiful in its materials and finish, and durable as an article of apparel. […] The moccasin is made of one piece of deer skin. It is seamed up at the heel, and also in front, above the foot, leaving the bottom of the moccasin without a seam.

1850 July, Lewis H[enry] Morgan, “The Fabrics of the Iroquois”, in James Stryker, editor, Stryker’s American Register and Magazine, volume IV, Washington, D.C.: W. M. Morrison [et al.], →OCLC, page 321:

The carving of the toes, the articulation of which is slightly arched in some cases, shows great delicacy[…]. The feet of the leaping youths of the 'Ivory Deposit' omit this feature, since, as was usual in the sports of the bull-ring, they were shod in mocassin-like gear.

1930, Arthur Evans, “§87. Chryselephantine Figurines of ‘Boston Goddess’ and Boy-god Connected with Ivory Deposit: The Mother Goddess and Child.”, in The Palace of Minos: A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilization as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos, volumes III (The Great Transitional Age in the Northern and Eastern Sections of the Palace: The Most Brilliant Records of Minoan Art and the Evidences of an Advanced Religion), London: Macmillan and Co., Limited […], →OCLC, page 452:

A traditional Native North American shoe, usually without a heel or sole, made of a piece of deerskin or other soft leather turned up at the edges which are either stitched together at the top of the shoe, or sewn to a vamp (a piece covering the top of the foot).

Walking moccasin of gray chrome tanned leather. Waterproof. Flexible elk sole.

1915 January, Robert Lloyd Trevor, “Shopping for the Well-dressed Man: The Parka and a New Overcoat, Some Shoes, Socks and a Muffler”, in Frank Crowninshield, editor, Vanity Fair, volume 3, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Vanity Fair Publishing Company, →OCLC, image caption, page 59, column 2:

The men's shoe, a classic, low-heeled moccasin, was called Model 175. A classier women's version soon followed.

2000, Sara Gay Forden, The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow and Company, →ISBN; republished New York, N.Y.: HarperCollins, 2012, →ISBN, page 38:

A modern shoe with either a low or no heel resembling a traditional Native American moccasin in that the leather forming the sides of the shoe is stitched at the top.

The moccaſin ſnake is a large and horrid ſerpent to all appearance, and there are very terrifying ſtories related of him by the inhabitants of the Southern ſtates, where they greatly abound, particularly in Eaſt Florida: that their bite is always incurable, the fleſh for a conſiderable ſpace about the wound rotting to the bone, which then becomes carious, and a general mortification enſues, which infallibly deſtroys the patient; […]

1791, William Bartram, chapter X, in Travels through North and South Carolina, […], Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed by James and Johnson; London: Reprinted for J. Johnson, […], published 1792, →OCLC, page 268:

The excellence of alkaline salts, as antidotes to the venom of serpents, has long been established. The volatile alkali is a common remedy in India for the bite of the cobra copella and viper, &c. The poison of the moccasin and rattlesnake is immediately counteracted by the application of this remedy.

1843 March 8, E. J. Ferguson, “On the Treatment of Hydrophobia”, in J[erome] V[an] C[roninsfield] Smith, editor, The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, volume XXVIII, number 7, Boston, Mass.: D. Clapp, Jr., […], published 22 March 1843, →OCLC, page 135:

Having last considered amphibious reptiles, in treating of snakes we will first describe some of the species that make their home chiefly in the water, among which we find only a single species, the moccasin, that is venomous, and another, the anaconda, that is otherwise formidable.

1891, J[ames] W[illiam] Buel, “Reptiles”, in The Living World: A Complete Natural History of the Worlds Creatures, Fishes, Reptiles, Insects, Birds and Mammals. …, Philadelphia, Pa., St. Louis, Mo.: Historical Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 179:

Agkistrodon contortrix
Agkistrodon contortrix#Translingual

Agkistrodon piscivorus
Agkistrodon piscivorus#Translingual

Any of several North American snakes of the genus Agkistrodon, particularly the copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) and the cottonmouth or water moccasin (Agkistrodon piscivorus).


bootstrap

en-verb

bootstrap (third-person singular simple present bootstraps, present participle bootstrapping, simple past and past participle bootstrapped)

bootstraps (present singular third-person)
bootstrapping (participle present)
bootstrapped (participle past)
bootstrapped (past)

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bootstrap.wav

From boot + strap. The sense "pull up (without aid)" comes from the phrase pull oneself up by one's bootstraps.

(computing) To load the operating system into the memory of a computer. Usually shortened to boot.

And she finds the plan. She doesn't remember it; she bootstraps it from first principles, in a handful of minutes, just like she's done a hundred times before.

2016 January 1, qntm, “Your Last First Day”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 2024-09-04:

(by extension) To build or put together (something) by first building or putting together the tools, building blocks, ideas, etc., necessary to build (the thing).


clog

Unknown; perhaps from Middle English clog (“weight attached to the leg of an animal to impede movement”). Perhaps of North Germanic origin and derived from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“lump, mass, clasp”); compare Old Norse klugu, klogo (“knotty tree log”), Dutch klomp.

der

Dutch people rarely wear clogs these days.

[…] as to the poor—just look at them when they come crowding about the church-doors on the occasion of a marriage or a funeral, clattering in clogs; […]

1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Mr. Donne’s Exodus”, in Shirley. A Tale. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], →OCLC, page 117:

She stomped up the stairs. Her clogs slammed against the pine boards of the staircase and shook the house.

2002, Alice Sebold, chapter 5, in The Lovely Bones, Waterville, ME: Thorndike Press, page 92:

A type of shoe with an inflexible, often wooden sole sometimes with an open heel.

قُبْقَاب

a type of shoe with an inflexible, often wooden sole and an open heel


clog

en-verb

clog (third-person singular simple present clogs, present participle clogging, simple past and past participle clogged)

clogs (present singular third-person)
clogging (participle present)
clogged (participle past)
clogged (past)

The commodities […]are clogged with impositions.

1705, J[oseph] Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, &c. in the Years 1701, 1702, 1703, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

You'll rue the time / That clogs me with this answer.

c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:

To burden; to trammel; to embarrass; to perplex.

And in a burst of Celtic drums and fiddles, a bosomy colleen with a jaunty green hat and suit jacket riverdanced onto the stage, clogging with a surprising degree of expertise, barely restrained breasts jiggling.


gum

en-noun

gum (countable and uncountable, plural gums)

From Middle English gomme, gumme, borrowed from Anglo-Norman gome, from Late Latin gumma, from Latin cummi, gummi, from Ancient Greek κόμμι (kómmi), from Egyptian qmy (“anointing oil”), qmyt (“acanthus resin, gum”). Cognate with Spanish goma (“rubber”). Doublet of gumma.

صَمْغ

sticky substance exuded by certain plants

խեժ

sticky substance resembling that exuded by certain plants


sock

sock (plural socks or (informal, nonstandard) sox)

socks (plural)
sox (informal nonstandard plural)

desctree

→ French: socquette
→ Portuguese: soquete

Japanese: ソックス (sokkusu) < socks

Swahili: soksi < socks (plural)

From Middle English socke, sokke, sok, from Old English socc (“sock, light shoe, slipper”), a West Germanic borrowing from Latin soccus (“a light shoe or slipper, buskin”), from Ancient Greek σύκχος (súkkhos, “a kind of shoe”), probably from Phrygian or from an Anatolian language. Beekes compares Avestan 𐬵𐬀𐬑𐬀 (haxa, “sole of the foot”). Cognate with Scots sok (“sock, stocking”), West Frisian sok (“sock”), Dutch sok (“sock”), German Socke (“sock”), Danish sok, sokke (“sock”), Swedish sock, socka (“sock”), Icelandic sokkur (“sock”). Doublet of zocco; also related to zoccolo, socle, and zocalo.

der

(Internet slang) A sock puppet (type of online account).


runner

From Middle English rennere, rynner, urnare, equivalent to run + -er. Cognate with Old Norse rennari (“runner; messenger”). Displaced earlier Middle English runel (“runner”), from Old English rynel (“runner”; also “messenger, courier”).

махови́к

(Australia, Canada, Ireland, Scotland) A type of soft-soled shoe originally intended for runners.

A mechanical part intended to guide or aid something else to move (using wheels or sliding).

A leaping food fish (Elagatis pinnulatis) of Florida and the West Indies; the skipjack, shoemaker, or yellowtail.


fin

Dutch language
German language
Latin language
Middle English language
Old English language
Old Irish language
Proto-Germanic language
Proto-Indo-European language
Swedish language
Tocharian A language
fin
fin (disambiguation)

From Middle English fin, from Old English finn, from Proto-Germanic *finnō, *finǭ (“dorsal fin”) (compare Dutch vin, German Finne, Swedish finne, fena), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pīn- (“backbone, dorsal fin”) (compare Old Irish ind (“end, point”), Latin pinna (“feather, wing, fin”), Tocharian A spin (“hook”).

der-lite

The divers wore fins to swim faster.

A device worn by divers and swimmers on their feet.


shoehorn

/ˈʃuːˌhɔː(ɹ)n/

A smooth tool that assists in putting the foot into a shoe, by sliding the heel in after the toe is in place. This reduces discomfort and damage to the back of the shoe. By slipping it into the back of the shoe behind the heel, the user prevents the heel from squashing down the back of the shoe and causing difficulty; instead the heel slides down the smooth shoehorn, which then comes out easily once the foot is in place.


beater

From Middle English beter, betere, bettere, from Old English bēatere (“a beater; boxer, fighter; champion”), equivalent to beat + -er. Related to beetle (“a type of mallet”).

inh

Packed merrily into my friends’ beater, an old Ford Pinto, we headed into Jennings, a mostly Black North St. Louis County community heavily patrolled by white officers, to pick up one more college friend.

2020 July 14, Ron Stodghill, “Black Behind the Wheel”, in New York Times:

(US, informal) An old or dilapidated automobile in poor operating condition.

wrak

an automobile in poor operating condition

In the sport Quidditch or Muggle quidditch, a player a who attempts to hit the opposing team's players with bludgers and to block the bludgers from hitting their own team's players.

Beaters generally don't sell for much, unless they're a particularly legendary model, and they’re generally sold without the original box or extra laces. Unlike most "worn" sneakers that have been kept as close to perfect as possible, beaters tend to be the shoes used for rainy days and in the gym.

2015 July 22, Josh Chesler, “10 Sneaker Terms You Need to Know When Getting Into Kicks”, in Pheonix New Times:

What constitutes a beater varies from person to person — some might consider affordable sneakers like the Vans Sk8-Hi or a pair of Nike Air Force 1s a pair worth beating to death, while other sneakerheads might discover that one of their favorite "hyped" sneakers just naturally becomes a beater over time.

2018 September 11, Fabian Gorsler, “Industry Insiders Reveal Their Favorite Beater Sneakers”, in Highsnobiety:

5 low-key footwear brands making the trusty summer beater feel exciting again.

2022 July 25, Jake Woolf, “Your Next Pair of Canvas Sneakers Should Come With a Serious Dose of Indie Cred”, in GQ:

(informal) A shoe suitable for everyday wear, during which they may get dirty or scuffed, as opposed to more valuable shoes that one wishes to keep in good condition.


elevator

→ Hawaiian: ʻeleweka

→ Japanese: エレベーター

→ Korean: 엘리베이터 (ellibeiteo)

one's elevator doesn't go all the way to the top

(aeronautics) A control surface of an aircraft responsible for controlling the pitching motion of the machine.


spur

From Middle English spure, spore, from Old English spora, spura, from Proto-West Germanic *spurō, from Proto-Germanic *spurô, from Proto-Indo-European *sperH- (“to kick”).

A spiked iron worn by seamen upon the bottom of the boot, to enable them to stand upon the carcass of a whale to strip off the blubber.

(carpentry) A brace strengthening a post and some connected part, such as a rafter or crossbeam; a strut.

puntal

carpentry: brace strengthening a post and some connected part


spur

en-verb

spur (third-person singular simple present spurs, present participle spurring, simple past and past participle spurred)

spurs (present singular third-person)
spurring (participle present)
spurred (participle past)
spurred (past)

Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head! Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood; Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], line 339:

(transitive) To prod (especially a horse) on the side or flank, with the intent to urge motion or haste, to gig.

My desire / (More sharp than filed steel) did spur me forth...

c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], line 4:

But the latest Santa Fe development, while not spurring the Rock Island to any further acceleration, has drawn fire from a totally unexpected quarter.

1940 May, “Overseas Railways: Acceleration Proceeds in U.S.A.”, in Railway Magazine, page 298:

What is unbearable, in fact, is the feeling, 13 years after 9/11, that America has been chasing its tail; that, in some whack-a-mole horror show, the quashing of a jihadi enclave here only spurs the sprouting of another there; that the ideology of Al Qaeda is still reverberating through a blocked Arab world whose Sunni-Shia balance (insofar as that went) was upended by the American invasion of Iraq.

2014 November 17, Roger Cohen, “The horror! The horror! The trauma of ISIS [print version: International New York Times, 18 November 2014, p. 9]”, in The New York Times:

(transitive) To urge or encourage to action, or to a more vigorous pursuit of an object

побужда́ть

к чему́-либо


spur

The track of an animal, such as an otter; a spoor.


wader

(chiefly in the plural) A waterproof boot that comes up to the hip, used by fishermen, etc.

A long-legged bird associated with wetland or coastal environments.


stocking

→ Scottish Gaelic: stocainn

From stock (“cover with material”) + -ing. Corruption of old plural -en, i.e. stocken, now singular.

a pair of stockings

(footwear) A soft garment, usually knit or woven, worn on the foot and lower leg under shoes or other footwear.

çorape

garment (for translations of "sock", see sock)


geta

Because of August he wears shorts and sandals, the Japanese geta sort called thongs.

1963 March 16, Hal Porter, “Little old lady passing by”, in The Bulletin, page 22, column 3:

The Japanese geta or wooden sandal is a superb, though little-utilized, tool for training in the martial arts.[…]The geta are flat, wooden sandals raised on vertical slats.

1982 July, Robert Dillon, “Geta As A Karate Training Tool”, in Black Belt, page 70:

A Japanese raised wooden clog, worn with traditional Japanese garments such as the kimono.


pump

pump (third-person singular simple present pumps, present participle pumping, simple past and past participle pumped)

pumps (present singular third-person)
pumping (participle present)
pumped (participle past)
pumped (past)

⇒ Czech: pumpovat

→ Thai: ปั๊ม (bpám)

From Middle English pumpe, possibly from Middle Dutch pompe (“pipe, water conduit”) or Middle Low German pumpe (“pump”), probably ultimately imitative.
Compare Dutch pompen, German pumpen, and Danish pompe; also Spanish bomba (“pump”).

onomatopoeic

imitative

The underlying cause of the warming is human activities pumping carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, scientists say. But the reasons why marine heating is speeding up now are far from clear.

2023 August 7, Clive Cookson, “Missing ice and bleached coral: the sudden warming of the oceans”, in Financial Times:

(transitive) To inject or pour (something) into someone or something in a manner similar to a pump.

The waves were really pumping this morning.

Last night's party was really pumping.

(US, intransitive, slang) Of music: to be loud, to have strong bass and rhythms; (by extension) to be full of energy.


pump

The etymology of the term is unclear and disputed. One possibility is that it comes from pomp (“ornamentation”). Another is that it refers to the sound made by the foot moving inside the shoe when dancing. The Oxford English Dictionary claims that it appeared in the 16th century, and lists its origin as "obscure". It has also been linked to the Dutch pampoesje, possibly borrowed from Javanese pampus, ultimately from Persian پاپوش (pâpuš), borrowed from Arabic بَابُوش (bābūš).

unk

obscure

der

Arabic بَابُوش (bābūš)

(British) A low-top shoe with a rubber sole and a canvas upper; a low-top canvas sneaker.

She was wearing a lovely new pair of pumps.

(chiefly Canada, US) A type of women's shoe which leaves the instep uncovered and has a relatively high heel, especially a stiletto (with a very high and thin heel)


gaiter

Borrowed from French guêtre, from Middle French guiestres, guestes pl, from Old French *gueste, from Frankish *wastiju, from Proto-Germanic *wastijō (“garment; dress”).
Cognate with Middle High German wester (“a child's chrisom-cloth”), Middle High German westebarn (“godchild”), Old English wæstling (“a coverlet”), Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐍃𐍄𐌹 (wasti, “garment; dress”).

cog

Part of the ecclesiastical garb of a bishop.


hogger

A stocking without a foot, worn by coal miners at work.


vamp

From Middle English vaumpe, vaum-pei, vampe (“covering for the foot, perhaps a slipper or understocking; upper of a boot or shoe”), or from Anglo-Norman vampe, *vaumpé (“part of a stocking covering the top of the foot”), from Old French avantpied, avantpiet, variants of avantpié, from avant (“in front”) + pié (“foot”).
Noun senses 2 and 3 (“a patch; something patched up or improvised”) appear to have been extended from sense 1 (“top part of a boot or shoe”). Sense 4 (“repeated and often improvised musical accompaniment”) was probably derived from sense 3, and sense 5 (“activity to fill or stall for time”) from sense 4.
The verb senses were derived from the noun. Compare also Middle English vaum-peien (“(uncertain) to repair (footwear) with a new upper or vamp; to fabricate an upper or vamp”).

The flow of water was in my ears, and in my eyes a hazy spreading, and upon my brain a closure, as a cobbler sews a vamp up.

1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter XX, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, pages 279–280:

'Yes, I am rather cracked in the vamp,' he said freely, seeing that the eyes of the shepherd's wife fell upon his boots, 'and I am not well fitted either. I have had rough times lately, and have been forced to pick up what I can get in the way of wearing, but I must find a suit better fit for working days when I reach home.'

1883 March, Thomas Hardy, “The Three Strangers”, in Wessex Tales: Strange, Lively, and Commonplace […], volume I, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published 1888, →OCLC, page 24:

Their dark brown shoes had hand-stitched vamps.

1976, Chaim Grade, translated by Curt Leviant, The Yeshiva, Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, →ISBN, page 164:

The top part of a boot or shoe, above the sole and welt and in front of the ankle seam, that covers the instep and toes; the front part of an upper; the analogous part of a stocking.


vamp

en-verb

vamp (third-person singular simple present vamps, present participle vamping, simple past and past participle vamped)

vamps (present singular third-person)
vamping (participle present)
vamped (participle past)
vamped (past)

The shoe is now ready to be vamped after the eyelets are put in.

1899, [Charles B. Hatfield], “Cloth Quarters and Welt Shoes”, in Designing, Cutting and Grading Boot and Shoe Patterns: And Complete Manual for the Stitching Room. […], Boston, Mass.: Press of Superintendent and Foreman, →OCLC, page 56:

(transitive, shoemaking) To attach a vamp (to footwear).


vamp

A Fool There Was (1915 film)
Derby shoe
Oxford shoe
Theda Bara

Clipping of vampire. From a character type developed first for silent film, notably for Theda Bara's role in the 1915 film A Fool There Was.
The verb is derived from the noun.

It is the vamp who has a sense of humor that can really hold a man. She laughs at him, even as she is seeking to allure him—and he adores it.

1919 June, Renee Van Dyke, “Interesting Paragraphs about the Players”, in Geo[rge] M. Downs, Jr., editor, The Photo-play World, volume 2, number 8, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Downs Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 59, column 3:

She was got up to the best of her ability as a siren, more popularly a "vamp"—a picker up and thrower away of men, an unscrupulous and fundamentally unmoved toyer with affections.

1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “The Connoisseur of Kisses”, in The Beautiful and Damned, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, book 1, page 95:

"Lady Miriam?" said Jarvis in surprise. "Oh, yes. … I suppose you mean that she looks a queer sort of vamp. But you've no notion what even the ladies of the best families are looking like nowadays.[…]"

1927 September, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Actor and the Alibi”, in The Secret of Father Brown, London, Toronto, Ont.: Cassell and Company, →OCLC, page 148:

Well, her seclusion is considered suspicious. She annoys them by being good-looking and even what is called good style. And all the young men are warned against her as a vamp.

1936, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Vampire of the Village”, in The Penguin Complete Father Brown, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, London: Penguin Books, published 1985, →OCLC, page 707:

[…]strait-laced Sandy, played by Olivia Newton-John, transformed herself into a vamp to bag the man of her dreams

2021 January 2, Katie Hind, “Grease is 'racist, rapey, homophobic and slut-shaming' and should never be shown on TV again, say woke snowflakes”, in The Daily Mail:

A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her; femme fatale.


vamp

We want a musical-comedy star to vamp a Senator or a member of the Cabinet; we want the protective tariff revised up or down because of an actress' whim; we want scarlet scandal in high life. And we are not likely to get them.

1926 November, Gilbert Seldes, “Exit the Poor Actor!: Out at Elbow No Longer, Our Players To-day are among America’s Most Prosperous Citizens”, in Arthur Hornblow, editor, Theatre Magazine, volume XLIV, number 308, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Magazine Company, →OCLC, page 58, column 4:

"People who lose all their charity generally lose all their logic," remarked Father Brown. "It's rather ridiculous to complain that she keeps to herself; and then accuse her of vamping the whole male population."

She smiled again. Batted her lashes and laid down a few more mascara tracks. Vamping in order to maintain composure.

1990 October, Jonathan Kellerman, chapter 27, in Time Bomb, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 321:

She vamps this month on the cover of British Vogue, a portrait of artfully crafted provocation.

2021 May 4, Ruth La Ferla, “On That Bombshell Billie Eilish Cover for British Vogue”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(transitive, intransitive) To seduce or exploit someone.


vamp

Uncertain; possibly related to vamp (etymology 1, above): see the 2008 quotation.

John Mackin is one of the old-timers of the new Department. He was a volunteer fireman as well, […] John Mackin was among the number of "old vamps" who made application to the first Board of Fire Commissioners for appointment in the Paid Department.

1892, “Companies of the Seventh District”, in Our Firemen: The Official History of the Brooklyn Fire Department, from the First Volunteer to the Latest Appointee. Compiled from the Records of the Department, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [Brooklyn Fire Department], →OCLC, page 371:

The vamps had to carry their equipment to the fire on foot!

2000, “History of the Atlanta Fire Department”, in History of Service: Atlanta Fire Department Commemorative Yearbook, Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing Company, →ISBN, page 25, column 1:

Volunteer firemen are called vamps because they often went to fires on foot, vamp being an old English word for "walk." Syosset's first vamps responded quickly to fires and formed bucket brigades to extinguish them.

2008, John Delin, “The Vamps, Syosset’s Bravest”, in Syosset People and Places (Images of America), Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, →ISBN, page 88:


skate

Back-formation from Dutch schaats, from Middle Dutch schāetse, from Old Northern French escache (“a stilt, trestle”) (compare French échasse and English scatch), from a Germanic language, perhaps Frankish *skakkjā (“stilt”, literally “thing that moves”), related to *skakan (“to shake, swing”).


torpedo

* Borrowed from Latin torpēdō (“a torpedo fish; numbness, torpidity, electric ray”), from torpeō (“I am stiff, numb, torpid; I am astounded; I am inactive”) + -ēdō (noun suffix), from Proto-Indo-European *ster- (“stiff”). In the military sense coined by Robert Fulton in 1805. Cognate with Old English steorfan (“to die”), Ancient Greek στερεός (stereós, “solid”), Lithuanian tirpstu (“to become rigid”), Old Church Slavonic трупети (trupeti).
* (type of car): From 1908, after "the Torpedo", a car designed by Captain Theo Masui.

cog

Faire Queene, forbeare to angle for the fiſh, / Which being caught, ſtrikes him that takes it dead, / I meane that vile Torpedo, Gaueſton, / That now I hope flotes on the Iriſh Seas

1594, Christopher Marlow[e], The Troublesome Raigne and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England: […], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Henry Bell, […], published 1622, →OCLC, [Act I]:

The man has been changed into an artificial monster by the station in which he is born, and the consequent homage that benumbed his faculties like the torpedo's touch […].

1790, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Men:

"A childhood Misadventure with a Torpedo," Dixon, with a brief move of his head toward Mason, confides, "— thus his Sensitivity at all References to the,"— whispering,— "electrickal!"

1997, Thomas Pynchon, Mason & Dixon, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 286:

(zoology) An electric ray of the genus Torpedo.

(slang) A professional gunman or assassin.

(historical) An automobile with a streamlined profile and a folding or detachable soft top, and having the hood or bonnet line raised to be level with the car's waistline, resulting in a straight beltline from front to back.


cobbler

→ Irish: caibléir

Inherited from Middle English cobeler, cobelere (“mender of shoes, cobbler”) [and other forms]; further origin unknown. The word appears to be derived from an early form of cobble (“to mend roughly, patch; (specifically) to mend shoes, especially roughly”) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns), but is attested much earlier than the verb which suggests that the verb may be a back-formation from cobbler.
Sense 2 (“sheep left to the end to be sheared”) is a pun on cobbler’s last (“tool for shaping or preserving the shape of shoes”); while sense 3 (“clumsy workman”) is derived from cobble + -er: see above.

suffix

the cobbler always wears the worst shoes

the cobbler's children are the worst shod

This honest Cobler has done what he might: / That Statesmen in their Shoes might walk upright. / But rotten Shoes of Spannish running-leather: / No Coblers skill, can stitch them strong together.

1647, Jerome Bellamie, “Postscript”, in Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC; The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (Force’s Collection of Historical Tracts; vol. III, no. 8), 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: […] Daniel Henchman, […]; [Washington, D.C.: W. Q. Force], 1713 (1844 printing), →OCLC, page 58:

[W]hat would they think of a French cobler cutting ſhoes for ſeveral of his fellow-ſubjects out of an old apple-tree?

1710 February 21 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 15. Friday, February 10. [1710.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC, page 414:

All honeſt jogg trotmen, who go on ſmoothly and dully, and write hiſtory and politics, and are praiſed; and who, had they been bred coblers, would all their lives have only mended ſhoes, but never made them.

1766, [Oliver Goldsmith], “The History of a Philosophic Vagabond, Pursuing Novelty, but Losing Content”, in The Vicar of Wakefield: […], volume I, Salisbury, Wiltshire: […] B. Collins, for F[rancis] Newbery, […], →OCLC, page 5:

A person who repairs, and sometimes makes, shoes.


cobbler

Fished for cobblers in the evening. The warbler sings its night-song.

1831 November 10, George Fletcher Moore, “The Journey”, in Martin Doyle, editor, Extracts from the Letters and Journals of George Fletcher Moore, Esq. […], London: Orr and Smith, […]; Dublin: W. Curry, Jun. & Co. […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 122:

The South Australian catfish (Cnidoglanis macrocephalus), a species of catfish native to Australia which has dorsal and pectoral fins bearing sharp, venomous spines.

The soldier or South Australian cobbler (Gymnapistes marmoratus), a brown fish native to southern Australian estuaries which is not closely related to Cnidoglanis macrocephalus, but also has venemous spines on its dorsal and pectoral fins.


flipper

From flip + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Flappert (“flipper, wing”).

cog

(cricket) A type of ball bowled by a leg spin bowler, which spins backwards and skids off the pitch with a low bounce.


upper

(footwear) The Y-shaped strap on flip-flops.

The upper portion of something
The Y-shaped strap on flip-flops.


shank

From Middle English schanke, from Old English sċanca (“leg”), from Proto-West Germanic *skankō, from Proto-Germanic *skankô (compare West Frisian skonk, Low German Schanke, German Schenkel (“shank, leg”), Danish skank, Norwegian skank, Swedish skänkel), from *skankaz (compare Old Norse skakkr (“wry, crooked”)), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keng- (compare Middle Irish scingim (“I spring”), Ancient Greek σκάζω (skázō, “to limp”).

(ornithology, colloquial) A redshank or greenshank, various species of Old World wading birds in the genus Tringa having distinctly colored legs.

The metal part on a curb bit that falls below the mouthpiece, which length controls the severity of the leverage action of the bit, and to which the reins of the bridle are attached.

Alternative form: yank

LBC's tryna blackball me / And tryna blame your boy for knife crime (Like, what?) / I don't use a shank, I got money in the bank / Man, I'd rather do a drive-by

2017, Stormzy, Mura Masa (lyrics and music), “Mr Skeng” (track 1), in Gang Signs & Prayer, performed by Stormzy:

One of the shot callers' responsibilities was to control the shanks within the prison population—the crude homemade knives used for stabbing another prisoner.

2019, Casey Diaz, Mike Yorkey, The Shot Caller […] , Emanate Books, →ISBN, page 76:


shank

en-verb

shank (third-person singular simple present shanks, present participle shanking, simple past and past participle shanked)

shanks (present singular third-person)
shanking (participle present)
shanked (participle past)
shanked (past)

(slang) To stab, especially with an improvised blade.


plimsoll

From Samuel Plimsoll, a Bristol merchant.

“Yes, there are two distinct sets of footprints, both wearing rubber shoes—one I think ordinary plimsolls, the other goloshes,” replied the sergeant.

1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 13, in Well Tackled!:

While here, now, a large boy, a famous bully, swaggered to the front to bend, leering, and offer his satirical backside to be ineffectually beaten with a plimsoll by the gentle Scot.

(UK, Ireland) A rubber-soled lace-up canvas shoe for sports or onboard ships; a precursor of trainers.


dap

Onomatopoeic, from the sound made when a person runs while wearing daps.

I somehow expected them to shout obscenities, and was glad I had come ordinarily dressed, in a sports shirt, an old linen jacket, jeans and daps.

1988, Alan Hollinghurst, The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 169:

(West Country, Somerset, Bristol, Wales, usually in the plural) A plimsoll.


casual

en-adj

casual (comparative more casual, superlative most casual)

more casual (comparative)
most casual (superlative)

/ˈkɛʒ(ʉː)əl/

From Middle French casuel, from Late Latin cāsuālis (“happening by chance”), from Latin cāsus (“event”) (English case), from cadere (“to fall”) (whence English cadence).

der

I removed my jacket and threw it casually over the back of the settee.

2007, Nick Holland, The Girl on the Bus, page 117:


casual

/ˈkɛʒ(ʉː)əl/

At 15, he became a casual: one of the label-wearing, wedge-flicking, swaggering hooligan peacock boys who dominated the north-west when I was growing up. Casuals were working-class lads (called Perry boys in Manchester) who loved football, fighting and brilliant sportswear.

2019 September 14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian:

(UK, historical) A member of a group of football hooligans who wear expensive designer clothing to avoid police attention; see casual (subculture).

Next spring you’ll see more women than ever wearing “casuals” and “flats,” the shoes with the wedge heels or no heels at all.

1948 December, “Shoes: Competition Is Back”, in Kiplinger Magazine, page 47, column 2:

In girls wearing casuals, ugly hypertrophied skin over the heels was frequently noted, probably due to the loose shoe moving as they walked.

Like his friends, he is wearing casuals, ideal for lounging around crypts.

1967, Kenneth Tynan, Tynan Right & Left: Plays, Films, People, Places and Events, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum, page 65:

He and I were wearing casuals[…]

1984, William Golding, The Paper Men, page 71:

(in the plural) Shoes suitable for everyday use, as opposed to more formal footwear.


slipper

Malay: selipar

Coordinate term: bootee

Get out of bed, put on your slippers, and come downstairs.

(footwear) Such a shoe intended for indoor use; a bedroom or house slipper.


brogue

From Irish bróg (“boot, shoe”), from Old Irish bróc, possibly related to or origin of Old Norse brók (“breeches”). The "accent" sense may instead be derived from Irish barróg (“a hold (on the tongue)”).

He had one pair of brogues and the soles were in a miserable state.

2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad, Fleet (2017), page 161:

A strong Oxford shoe, with ornamental perforations and wing tips.


nylon

en-noun

nylon (countable and uncountable, plural nylons)

→ Persian: نایلون (nâylon)

→ Polish: nylon

desctree

→ Spanish: nailon
→ Southeastern Tepehuan: nailo

→ Tibetan: ནེ་ལོན (ne lon)

→ Turkish: naylon

→ Chinese: 尼龍 /尼龙 (nílóng)

Arbitrary letters + -on (by analogy with cotton); the widespread claim that the word derives from abbreviations of New York and London is a myth. Another claim is that an earlier name proposed for the material, intended for use in stockings, was "no-run", which was altered to avoid falsely representing that stockings made from the material would not run at all.

(perjoratively, by comparison to silk) A Queen's Counsel, King's Counsel or Senior Counsel who was appointed as a courtesy, rather than on merit.


ugg boot

In Australia ugg boots and variants like ug, ugh or uggs are used generically. A trademark of UGH-BOOTS was registered in 1971 but was not enforced and generic users of the terms successfully applied for its removal in 2006 (Deckers Outdoor Corporation v B&B McDougal ATMO 5 (16 January 2006)).

A boot made of sheepskin with the wool as the lining and the leather as the outside.


orthopedic shoe

en-noun

orthopedic shoe (plural orthopedic shoes)

A shoe designed to correct a specific deformity of the foot.

ortopéd cipő

a shoe designed to correct a specific deformity of the foot


mukluk

Borrowed from Yup'ik maklak (“bearded seal”), referring to sealskin used to make boots, originally derived from Proto-Eskimo *makla (“bearded seal, spotted seal”).

der

Her parkee, made of Caribou, it is a lovely fit, / And she's all right from muck-a-luck unto her dainty mit. / This lovely Klooch is fond of Hooch, and makes it very well.

1898 December 8, Medicine Hat News, page 5:

(Canada, US) A soft knee-high boot of sealskin or reindeer skin, originally worn by Inuit and Yupik.


gore

Gore (fabrics)
Gore (heraldry)
Gore (road)
Gore (segment)
Gore (surveying)

From Middle English gore (“patch (of land, fabric), clothes”), from Old English gāra, from Proto-Germanic *gaizô.

inh

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

An elastic gusset for providing a snug fit in a shoe.


clodhopper

Compound of clod + hopper (agentive form of the verb hop). Perhaps affected by analogy with grasshopper. Attested in the sense of "peasant" since the seventeenth century; the extended sense of "boot" or "shoe" dates from the nineteenth century.

Smiling Jim Mead of New York tries on his GI clodhopper boots. He decided to return them "because we couldn't make any altitude with those aboard."

1943 August 16, “Senators go global: Five will fly to all fronts”, in LIFE Magazine:

(military slang) United States Navy ankle length work shoes, distinct from dress shoes or combat boots.


shoemaker

From Middle English shomaker, equivalent to shoe + maker. Compare Dutch schoenmaker, German Schuhmacher, Danish skomager.

He especially recommended the only shoemaker who, to his mind, had an idea of making a shoe; and Lucy had at least half-a-dozen pair made, fitted, and descanted upon, before he was satisfied that they did justice to the shape of her foot, which proved extremely good when it was properly chaussé.

1833, Arabella Sullivan, Recollections of a Chaperon, volume 1, London: Richard Bentley, page 229:

The diseases of shoemakers receive attention as well as the toxicology of shoepolish.

1911 October, W. R. D., “Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General’s Office, United States Army. Authors and Subjects. Second Series, Vol. XV. S—Skin Grafting. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1910.)”, in American Journal of Insanity, volume LXVIII, number 2, page 327:


sabot

Early 17th century, borrowed from Middle French sabot (see French sabot below). Doublet of sabaton and ciabatta.

A carrier around a projectile in a firearm, cannon or other type of artillery piece that precisely holds the projectile within the barrel.

manchet

a carrier around projectile(s) in firearms, cannons and artillery which holds the projectile in precision within the barrel


Wellington boots

en-noun

Wellington boots pl (normally plural, singular Wellington boot)

Named after Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who wore and popularised a similar style of boot, if not made of rubber.

named-after

(British) Waterproof rubber boots, intended to be worn in wet or muddy conditions. Short forms: wellies (singular welly or wellie)


winkle-picker

winkle-picker toes; winkle-picker stilettos

Four children on the roundabout […] and two youths with heavy side-burns and stiff crew cuts, in black sweaters, drain-pipe jeans and winkle-pickers, made up the entire custom of the afternoon.

1963, H. E. Bates, chapter 6, in Oh! To Be in England, Penguin, published 1966, page 74:

The “Mods” or “Moderns” wear sharply cut Italian‐style suits and long, pointed “winklepicker” shoes. They ride motor scooters fitted with scores of gleaming accessories.

1964 March 31, “Rival Teen‐Age Gangs Terrorize British Sea Resort”, in The New York Times:

Summer of 1955, Archie went to Fleet Street with his best winkle-pickers on, looking for work as a war correspondent.

2000, Zadie Smith, White Teeth, London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, page 12:

Logan had dressed a little differently to the rest. It would be the flourish of a neck scarf maybe. Or a different cut to the boot. If everyone else was wearing a square toecap, nothing would do Logan Hartnett only to arrive into the [Café] Aliados in a winklepicker, and the sly puss on.

2011, Kevin Barry, City of Bohane, Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, published 2012, Part 2, Chapter 20, pp. 143-144:

(also attributively) A style of boot or shoe with a severely pointed toe, fashionable in the 1950s and 1960s.


wingtip

Then, immaculately dressed in three-piece suit, starched collar, and wingtips, Wilbur was obliged to drive a spike of Nevada silver into a railroad tie, a tricky and potentially embarrassing ceremonoial duty, especially with a phalanx of eager photographers poised to record every misswing.

2014, Joseph E. Stevens, Hoover Dam: An American Adventure:

A part of a shoe, often with brogueing that extends backwards on both sides from the toe.


racket

From Middle English raket, of uncertain origin.
Possibly cognate with Middle French rachette, requette (“palm of the hand”). From Arabic رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد (rāḥat al-yad, “palm of the hand”).
Alternatively, the term might be derived from Dutch raketsen instead, from Middle French rachasser (“to strike (the ball) back”).

unc

uncertain origin

der

رَاحَةْ اَلْيَد

(Canada) A snowshoe formed of cords stretched across a long and narrow frame of light wood.


walker

→ Irish: válcaeir

→ Persian: واکر (vâker)

From Middle English walkere (“one who walks, traveller”), equivalent to walk + -er.

inh

I would ask for the pleasure of your company, Mr. Knightley, but I am a very slow walker, and my pace would be tedious to you; and, besides, you have another long walk before you, to Donwell Abbey.

1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Emma: […], volume I, London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 118:

We hired a walker for the dogs during the day.

2005, Carlo De Vito, 10 Secrets My Dog Taught Me: Life Lessons from a Man's Best Friend, page 88:

The agent noun of to walk: a person who walks or a thing which walks, especially a pedestrian or a participant in a walking race.

He's really just a 'walker' for old ladies!" Walkers, now, are a special breed of pilot fish — entertaining male escorts.

1980 December 29, New York, volume 14, number 1, page 26:

Women at the top — Lady Di and Nancy Reagan in particular — apparently have 'walkers' — men to escort them on public and private occasions providing a respectable cover, while the male who is their sexual partner is off on more pressing business.

In the vernacular of the trade, he was what is commonly known as "a walker" — an entertaining male escort who is usually sexually unthreatening […]

1984, Clemens David Heymann, Poor little rich girl: the life and legend of Barbara Hutton:

2007, The Walker (film about a male escort)

A male escort who accompanies a woman to an event.

Two of the walkers circled the pillars. Their searchlights played through the trees, then turned back to Leia and the others.

2011, Dave Wolverton, The Courtship of Princess Leia: Star Wars Legends, page 144:

It also takes a good amount of inspiration from Metal Gear Solid 4s biomechanical designs, namely the Gekko walkers' and their synthetic musculature.

2019, Joe Meno, BrickJournal #60, page 37:

(science fiction) A kind of military robot or mecha with legs for locomotion.

(cricket) A batsman or batswoman who directly walks off the field when out without waiting for the umpire's decision.

A single mother of three, Rachel is what Facebook users call as ^([sic]) “walker,” or an online sex worker. Using a dummy account, she posts her sexy photos and informs page visitors that she’s available for sex in exchange for money.

2019 June 22, Charisse Ursal, “Social media lures young people to engage in sex for money”, in Philippine Daily Inquirer:

(Philippines) A prostitute, streetwalker.


barefoot

From Middle English barefote, barfot, from Old English bærfōt (“barefoot”), from Proto-Germanic *bazafōts (“barefoot”) equivalent to bare + foot. Cognate with Scots barefit (“barefoot”), Old Frisian berfōt ("barefoot"; modern Saterland Frisian boarfouts (“barefoot”, adverb)), Dutch barrevoets (“barefoot”, adverb), German barfuß (“barefoot”), Danish barfodet (“barefoot”), Swedish barfota (“barefoot”, adverb), Icelandic berfættur (“barefoot”), Yiddish באָרוועס (borves, “barefoot”).

gloss

"barefoot"; modern Saterland Frisian <i class="Latn mention" lang="stq">boarfouts</i> (“barefoot”, adverb)

After taking off their shoes, socks and sandals at the doorway, the kids were barefoot.

[L]ike Hedg-hogs vvhich / Lye tumbling in my bare-foote vvay, and mount / Their pricks at my foot-fall: ſometime am I / All vvound vvith Adders, vvho vvith clouen tongues / Doe hiſſe me into madneſſe: […]

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 9, column 1:

It was firm enough to walk on, but Bradly took off his boots to preserve the leather from sea-water, and for the pleasure of barefoot walking on cool sand.

1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 60:

(CB radio, slang) Transmitting without the use of an amplifier.


barefoot

She likes to go barefoot in the summertime.

Ignoring the familiar discomfort, he padded barefoot across the thick white carpet toward the heavy curtains that lined the richly appointed bedroom’s wide transparisteel window.

2007, Andy Mangels, Michael A. Martin, Star Trek: Enterprise: The Good That Men Do:

(CB radio slang) Transmitting without the use of an amplifier.


pike

From Middle English pyke, pyk, pik, pike (“pike; sharp point, iron tip of a staff or spear, pointed toe of an item of footwear; sharp tool; mountain, peak”), from Old English pīc (“pointed object, pick axe”), and Middle French pique (“long thrusting weapon”), from Old French pic (“sharp point, spike”); both ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *pīk, from Proto-Germanic *pīkaz, *pīkō (“sharp point, pike, peak”), related to pick with a narrower meaning.
The word is cognate with Middle Dutch pecke, peke, picke (modern Dutch piek), German Pike, Norwegian pik, Danish pig, and possibly Old Irish pīk. It is a doublet of pique.
The diving or gymnastics position is probably from tapered appearance of the body when the position is executed.
The carnivorous freshwater fish is probably derived from the “sharp point, spike” senses, due to the fish’s pointed jaws.
The verb sense “to quit or back out of a promise” may be from the sense of taking up pilgrim's staff or pike and leaving on a pilgrimage; and compare Middle English pī̆ken (“to go, remove oneself”) and Old Danish pikke af (“to go away”).

cog

And now they begin to catch the pikes, and will ſhortly the trouts (pox on theſe miniſters), and I would fain know whether the floods were ever ſo high as to get over the holly bank or the river walk; if ſo, then all my pikes are gone; but I hope not.

1711 March 10, Jonathan Swift, J[ohn] Hawkesworth, “Letter LV”, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, D.D. Dean of St. Patrick’s, Dublin: […], new edition, volume XIII, London: Printed for Charles Elliot, Edinburgh, published 1784, →OCLC, pages 275–276:

Lord Erskine soon afterwards came to Brighton, and told Mrs. Coutts, if she would give him a dinner he would provide the fish from his own pond. She agreed; and his present proved to be an overgrown pike, weighing between thirty and forty pounds, and so hideous in its appearance that no guest touched it, the mere sight of it being perfectly disagreeable to many.

1839 November 2, “Memoirs of Harriot, Duchess of St. Albans. By Mrs. Cornwell Baron Wilson, Author of the ‘Life and Correspondence of M. G. Lewis.’ 2 vols. 12mo. London 1839. Colburn.”, in The Literary Gazette; and Journal of the Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, &c., number 1189, London: Printed by Moyes and Barclay, […]; published for the proprietors, at the Literary Gazette office, […], →OCLC, page 694, column 1:

If you fish for pike with a live-bait, snap tackle, or spinning, it should always be with the hooks attached to gimp, in consequence of the several rows of sharp teeth with which the pike is armed, and which enable it to bite gut in two.

1879 (indicated as 1880), [Charles Dickens Jr.], “Pike”, in Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames: From Oxford to the Nore. … An Unconventional Handbook, London: Charles Dickens, […], →OCLC; republished as Dickens’s Dictionary of the Thames, from Its Source to the Nore. … An Unconventional Handbook, London: Macmillan & Co., […], 1883, →OCLC, page 164, column 2:

Any carnivorous freshwater fish of the genus Esox, especially the northern pike, Esox lucius.


strappy

en-adj

strappy (comparative strappier, superlative strappiest)

strappier (comparative)
strappiest (superlative)

Looking luminous in a yellow, strappy Cavalli dress with her sun-kissed hair cascading down her back, the pop star-turned-actress demands that the reporter shake her groove thing like Beyonce does in her hit video "Crazy in Love."

2003 September 14, Cindy Pearlman, Chicago Sun-Times:

The click-click-click of strappy stilettos has given way to the clomp-clomp-clomp of platforms and wedges on the Milan catwalk.

2006 March 3, Hadley Freeman, The Guardian:

We read newspaper accounts of the Reagans' black-tie evenings, where the women wore long, shimmering gowns and strappy high heels and everyone toasted equally elegant foreign guests.

2010, Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart:

(of clothing) Of or characterized by straps.


shoestring

The noun is derived from shoe + string. The adjective is derived from the noun, while the verb is derived from terms such as shoestring catch and shoestring tackle.

(US, chiefly American football, baseball) Of a catch or tackle: made near the ground, close to a player's shoes.

jalka-

of a catch or tackle: made near the ground, close to a player’s shoes


slop

From Middle English slop, sloppe, slope, from Old English *slop (found in oferslop (“an outergarment, surplice”)). Cognate with Icelandic sloppur (“a long, loose gown”).

cog

(obsolete) A loose outer garment; a jacket or overall.

(South Africa, chiefly in the plural) A flip-flop.


slop

en-noun

slop (countable and uncountable, plural slops)

Probably from Middle English *sloppe (attested in plural form sloppes), representing Old English *sloppe (attested in cūsloppe), related to slip.

(sometimes in the plural) Scraps used as food for animals, especially pigs or hogs.


wellies

wellies pl (normally plural, singular welly or wellie)

(UK, New Zealand, informal) Wellington boots


stiletto heel

A heel of a shoe that is very narrow the bottom - the base has less than one square centimeter of surface. They are typically 5 to 10 centimeters (2 to 4 inches) high, but can be much higher. Lower ones are sometimes called kitten heels.


Arctic

From Middle French artique (with -c- reintroduced after Latin in the 17th century), from Latin arcticus, from Ancient Greek ἀρκτικός (arktikós, “northern, of the (Great) Bear”), from ἄρκτος (árktos, “bear, Ursa Major”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos (“bear”). Cognate with Latin ursus.

etymon

frm>artique>pertaining to the North Pole

der

(US, now chiefly historical) A warm waterproof overshoe.


heels

She wore a short skirt and heels.

dig in one's heels

firmly or stubbornly keep ideas when opposed


napoleon

en-noun

napoleon (countable and uncountable, plural napoleons)

/nəˈpəʊlɪən/

Borrowed from French Napoléon (“given name, usually in reference to Napoleon Bonaparte”). In reference to coins, via French napoléon (“(slang) a coin that originally had the appearance of Napoleon's face in the obverse”). In reference to guns and possibly cards, in reference to Napoleon III.

bor

Always an eloquent speaker, Polk became known as the Napoleon of the stump.

2011, Robert Morgan, Lions of the West::

(fashion, obsolete) Clipping of Napoleon boot: a form of topboot worn by officers during the Napoleonic Wars.


go-ahead

As a name for footwear, from the fact that one can't easily step backwards wearing them.

(dated, usually in the plural) A flip-flop (footwear).


saddle

→ Japanese: サドル (sadoru)

Homer Tunnel
Milford Sound
Oxford English Dictionary

From Middle English sadel, from Old English sadol, from Proto-West Germanic *sadul, from Proto-Germanic *sadulaz (“saddle”). Further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *sod-dʰlo-, from *sed- (“to sit”) + *-dʰlom (a variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting instruments or tools)), though the Oxford English Dictionary says this “presents formal difficulties”.
Cognates
* Danish sadel
* Dutch zadel
* German Sattel
* Icelandic söðull
* Low German Sadel
* Russian седло́ (sedló)
* Saterland Frisian Soadel
* Scots sadil
* Swedish sadel
* West Frisian seal

saal

seat for a rider placed on the back of a horse or other animal

satula

something resembling a saddle in appearance or shape

satula

depression located along the axial trend of an anticline

'Now then … What'll it be, boys?' Mr Berman asked. / My mother answered. 'Brown-and-white saddles for Fudge and loafers for Peter.'

1972, Judy Blume, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, New York, N.Y.: Dutton Children’s Books, →ISBN, page 56:

Something resembling a saddle (sense 1) in appearance or shape.

Synonym of saddle oxford or saddle shoe (“a shoe, resembling an oxford, which has a saddle (sense 11.1)”)


floater

From float + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).

kelluja

person who physically floats in a gas or liquid

paikanvaihtaja

person without a fixed or lasting affiliation, position, or role

leijuri

thing which moves from place to place, as if floating

Replace your leather sandals with rubber slippers, sandals or floaters. They don't soak water well and why in this world would you want to spoil your expensive leather footwear in puddles?

2017 September 1, Mansi Mahendru, “How to Dress Up during Monsoon: Six Tips”, in Divesh Nath, editor, Woman’s Era, volume 44, number 1050, New Delhi: Paresh Nath, Delhi Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 16, columns 1–2:

A thing which physically floats in a gas or liquid.


sneaker

Related to how quiet the shoes are. sneak + -er

(US, Atlantic Canada, Australia, New Zealand) An athletic shoe with a soft, rubber sole. A trainer.


seven-league boots

en-noun

seven-league boots pl (normally plural, singular seven-league boot)

The Count strode away as if he had secured seven-league boots, and in less time than it seemed possible, though it was an age to Lady Anne (...), he returned with two bank of England notes in his hand, which he put into the bailiff's, saying,—"There's your money for yourself and all. You have proper behavour, and will make no say of this littel matter."

1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XL, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 211:

(folklore, fairy tale) A pair of boots enabling the wearer to cross seven leagues at one stride.


bootlace

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-bootlace.wav


jogger

(now chiefly Australia) A shoe designed for jogging; a running shoe.


sandal

From Middle English sandal (“sandal”), from Old French sandale, from Latin sandalium, from Ancient Greek σανδάλιον (sandálion), diminutive of σάνδαλον (sándalon, “sandal”), of unknown origin. Often mistakenly parsed as related to sand.

(footwear) A type of open shoe made up of straps or bands holding a sole to the foot

2@UlnarBackFinger-PalmBack-4@InsideTrunkhigh-PalmDown 2@RadialBackFinger 2@UlnarBackHand 2@RadialBackHand

chancleta

sandal with flat sole and crossed leather straps


espadrille

She wore loose black silks and black espadrilles.

1984, William Gibson, chapter 10, in Neuromancer (Sprawl; book 1), New York, N.Y.: Ace Books, →ISBN, page 127:

A light shoe having an upper made of fabric and a sole of rope.


kitten heel

Her new shoes, with their little perched heels, lent a swing to her hips. She smiled, pleased by the image. Lily in her kitten heels.

Escorted by an entourage of large flies, we made our way through a grid of muddy corrals. I was in kitten heels and a skirt, a fact from which DePeters, in filth-encrusted rubber boots and worn T-shirt, derived lasting merriment.

A short, slender heel on a woman's shoe or sandal.


bootleg

en-verb

bootleg (third-person singular simple present bootlegs, present participle bootlegging, simple past and past participle bootlegged)

bootlegs (present singular third-person)
bootlegging (participle present)
bootlegged (participle past)
bootlegged (past)

From boot + leg. Originally a nickname given to smugglers in King George III's reign, derived from the smugglers' custom of hiding packages of valuables in their large sea-boots when dodging the king's coastguardsmen.

In the 1930s, Grandpa used to bootleg to make ends meet.

In the 1930s, Grandpa used to bootleg whiskey from a still hidden in the backwoods.

(transitive, intransitive) To engage in bootlegging.

(chiefly US, transitive, intransitive) To make, transport and/or sell illegal alcoholic liquor.

trokata

to make, transport and/or sell illegal alcoholic liquor

In the 1990s, Grandpa used to bootleg under some sort of Robin-Hood-esque notion.

In the 1990s, Grandpa used to bootleg Windows CD-ROMs.

(transitive, intransitive) To make, transport and/or sell an illegal version or copy of a copyrighted product.

raubkopieren

to make, transport and/or sell an illegal version or copy of a copyright product


bootleg

(American football) A play in which the quarterback fakes a handoff, conceals the ball against his hip, and rolls out.


Hessian

en-noun

Hessian (countable and uncountable, plural Hessians)

(historical) A mercenary soldier, especially a German one who fought with the British in the American Revolutionary War.

(chiefly British) Ellipsis of Hessian cloth/Hessian fabric.: burlap, jute.


Hessian

The Rhine Franconian dialect spoken in Hesse.


bootee

Coordinate term: slipper

Surgeons often slip on bootees before entering the operating room.

Just above the Sunset Strip, construction workers in white bootees were putting the final touches on another home — a 14,000-square-foot house that Mr. Niami is building for himself.

2017 December 23, Candace Jackson, “Who Wants to Buy the Most Expensive House in America?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

An overshoe or sock worn to cover dirty shoes or feet.


klomp

Borrowed from Dutch klomp. Doublet of clump.

Elisha could have saved his ox-yokes and made a farewell feast out of his shoes, had he been a Dutchman. The cast-off klomps of Holland must, in the course of a year, form a considerable addition to the stock of fuel.

1900, William Elliot Griffis, The American in Holland:


klomp

en-verb

klomp (third-person singular simple present klomps, present participle klomping, simple past and past participle klomped)

klomps (present singular third-person)
klomping (participle present)
klomped (participle past)
klomped (past)

Alternative form of clomp (“to walk heavily or clumsily”)


snowshoe

A flat item of footwear worn to facilitate walking in deep snow.

elur-erraketa

flat footwear worn to facilitate walking in deep snow


chancla

(Latin American culture) A slipper or flip-flop


welt

Circa 1425, a shoemaker's term. Perhaps related to Middle English welten (“to overturn, roll over”), from Old Norse velta (“to roll”). Meaning "ridge on the skin from a wound" first recorded 1800.

When she saw, on the back and shoulders of the child, great welts and calloused spots, ineffaceable marks of the system under which she had grown up thus far, her heart became pitiful within her.

1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, chapter XX, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume II, Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett & Company; Cleveland, Oh.: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, published 20 March 1852, →OCLC:

[…] I am sure of one thing,—scars are plenty enough in Germany, among the young men; and very grim ones they are, too. They criss-cross the face in angry red welts, and are permanent and ineffaceable.

1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter VII, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, pages 64–65:

She was nearly four feet long, with a large welt on her shell, which was encrusted with ancient-looking barnacles.

2014, Elizabeth Kolbert, chapter 7, in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Henry Holt and Company:

A ridge or lump on the skin, as caused by a blow.

(shoemaking) A strip of leather set into the seam between the outsole of a shoe and the upper, through which these parts are joined by stitching or stapling.

[The] Mantle of this Order was of Skie-coloured Damask, having broad welt of Gold embroidered on the Collar, and [...]

1672, Elias Ashmole, The institution, laws & ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter, chapter III, section 1:

[…] surmounted of another Azure: but in my Judgment, it rather represents a Hem, or Welt of a Belt, or an Edg of Silver, than two Belts one upon another; which the Bend properly signifie […]

1688, Randle Holme, The academy of armory, book 1, chapter IV, "Of the Bend divers ways"

A strip of material or covered cord applied to a seam or garment edge to strengthen or cover it.


oxford

en-noun

oxford (countable and uncountable, plural oxfords)

The other evening I was doing a very grown-up thing, ironing an oxford cloth shirt for work[…].

2007 March 17, Nicholas Kulish, “How Close Is Too Close to Shane MacGowan and the Pogues?”, in New York Times:

Alternative letter-case form of Oxford (cloth)

Alternative letter-case form of Oxford (shoe)


overshoe

/ˈoʊvəɹˌʃuː/

A shoe worn over an ordinary shoe, as:
To prevent damage to a floor.


ice skate

A light boot, fitted with a blade, used for ice skating.


clomp

Probably onomatopoeic or a variant of clump (“walk heavily and clumsily”), itself also onomatopoeic or perhaps from the notion of walking in clumps, from Dutch klomp (“clump, mass, wooden shoe”), from Old Dutch *klumpo, from Proto-Germanic *klumpô (“clump, lump, mass; clasp”), from Proto-Indo-European *glembʰ- (“clamp, mass”).

der

There was just a pause in the clomps, then Bill's boots went on toward the house.

1990, Laura C[aroline] Stevenson, chapter 11, in Happily after All, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, page 132:

"Hello?" he called toward the closed door. "Anybody here?" Somebody must have heard him, because he heard something move on the opposite side of the door. First a distant sound like animals grunting, then a clomp, clomp, clomp like boots approaching.

2010, Mark Peter Hughes, “Savages and Kings”, in A Crack in the Sky, Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 226:

Amidst the clomps of oncoming horses, he could now hear men's low, conferring voices.

2012 January, Frank Leslie, chapter 6, in The Last Ride of Jed Strange, Signet, New American Library, →ISBN:

The sound of feet hitting the ground loudly.


clomp

en-verb

clomp (third-person singular simple present clomps, present participle clomping, simple past and past participle clomped)

clomps (present singular third-person)
clomping (participle present)
clomped (participle past)
clomped (past)

[…] so having smoothed my hair as well as I could, and repeatedly twitched my obdurate collar, I proceeded to clomp down the two flights of stairs, philosophizing as I went; […]

1847, Acton Bell (pseudonym; Anne Brontë), Agnes Grey: A Novel, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, publisher, 72, Mortimer St., Cavendish Sq., →OCLC:

The next day I couldn't use my black pair to school and in order not to spoil my white pair I used my bakias or wooden clogs instead. As I clomped into the classroom, for I was late that morning, my school teacher—a German nun—looked up and I saw her face wrinkle with displeasure, […]

1974, Liesel Commans Quirino, Why the Great Balls of Fire if I am Going to Go Pffttt Anyway?: 1931 to 1971, [s.l.]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 43:

Ambrose laughed as he lurched backwards and then clomped with his gold-tipped walking stick to the bed.

2000, Robin Maxwell, chapter 14, in The Queen's Bastard: A Novel, Scribner Paperback Fiction, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 100:

My exasperation turned to horror with the realisation that a cat cast in plaster would sink which sent me scrambling for the scoop net. Adding insult to injury, the bystanders cheered his [the cat's] undignified retrieval. With a mortified hiss and yowl he clomped with bedraggled hauteur below decks.

2003, June Kant, “Castaway”, in Jan Fook, Susan Hawthorne, Renate Klein, editors, Cat Tales: The Meaning of Cats in Women's Lives, North Melbourne, Vic.: Spinifex Press, →ISBN, page 17:

[W]e clomped up the steep rear concrete steps to the main (study hall) level and entered the hallway, where we then quite innocently clomped with our well-worn brogues into the study hall, where we sat to await the appearance of Witch Robinson.

2005, Alton L. Provost, Reflections in an Orphan's Eye: A Decade at Oxford 1947–1957, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 278:

Then she'd be startled when a peasant clomped with heavy shoes into this world of seductive images, his pipe clamped between his teeth, his eyes bovine and sleepy, to ask for a few stamps, and reflexively she'd find something to dress him down for.

2008, Stefan Zweig, translated by Joel Rotenberg, The Post-Office Girl, New York, N.Y.: New York Review Books, →ISBN:

I shoved the door closed and took off running for the steps. The clogs were too big and not the best shoes for sprinting. My feet clomped along the broken sidewalk.

2011, Lisa Hughey, chapter 6, in Blowback: A Romantic Thriller (A Black Cipher Files Thriller; 2), [s.l.]: [CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform], →ISBN:

But now that we were running so late, I didn't have time to fuss with them. I jammed my feet back into my plain brown clogs and clomped back downstairs […]

2015 February, Coco Simon, “Cupcake Panda-monium”, in Alexis's Cupcake Cupid, Simon Spotlight, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, →ISBN, page 126:

(intransitive) To walk heavily or clumsily, as with clogs.

When Sarah pointed at the door, Thea took a few steps toward it, clomping her feet with each stride.

2010, Amanda Cabot, Scattered Petals: A Novel (Texas Dreams; book 2), Grand Rapids, Mich.: Revell, →ISBN, page 47:

Kurt Fuehlen's brother, Helmut, waited at the basement doorway behind the cathedral, stomping his feet and clomping his mittened hands against his beefy arms.

2012, William J. O'Malley, The Place Called Skull, Indianapolis, In.: Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 7:

(transitive) To make some object hit something, thereby producing a clomping sound.


Goodyear welt

After Charles Goodyear Jr., who was involved in making shoes of this kind.

A welt used in a method of shoe construction in which the insole, upper, and welt are sewn together and the welt is then stitched to the outsole so as to leave the upper surface of the insole free of tacks and stitches.


clip-clop

clip-clop (third-person singular simple present clip-clops, present participle clip-clopping, simple past and past participle clip-clopped)

clip-clops (present singular third-person)
clip-clopping (participle present)
clip-clopped (participle past)
clip-clopped (past)

Onomatopoeia for two footsteps in succession.

onomatopoeic

Onomatopoeia

At the some moment, a horse clip-clops past, hauling a wagon.

1999, Mary Downing Hahn, Anna All Year Round:

2002, D J Vallone, For the Love of Freedom http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&vid=ISBN0595226183&id=xKV1VCsAwZIC&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=%22clip-clops%22&sig=-LkO8mWX7qKZGvv2vcIXOHpIqYM
One of several pairs of mounted police in flak jackets clip-clops past, patrolling the perimeter.

There was a single arrivals platform, nearest to King's Cross. The large arch beneath the clock gave access to Hansom carriages clip-clopping up the cobbled ramp from the main gate in Euston Road, directly onto the platform, to meet well-to-do passengers.

2023 August 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: End damaging drift at Euston”, in RAIL, number 990, page 3:


footwear

en-noun

footwear (usually uncountable, plural footwears)

Yohji Yamamoto's strength was to stick with the sportswear that has inspired him since he teamed up with Adidas to create the imaginative pin-striped or painted-denim footwear that walked his grass-turf runway.

2002 January 29, Suzy Menkes, “PARIS FASHION : Wind of Change:New Formality With a Rugged Edge”, in The New York Times:

Items or an item of clothing that is worn on the foot; a shoe, sandal, etc.


high heels

high heels pl (normally plural, singular high heel)

→ Japanese: ハイヒール (hai hīru)

I look sexier in high heels.


loafer

Perhaps short for landloafer, possibly a partial translation of German Landläufer (compare dialectal German loofen (“to run”), and English landlouper); or more likely connected to Middle English love, loove, loffinge, looffinge (“a remnant, the rest, that which remains or lingers”), from Old English lāf (“remainder, residue, what is left”) (more at lave), which is akin to Scots lave (“the rest, remainder”), Old English lǣfan (“to let remain, leave behind”) (more at leave).

cog

The garden was bounded by a three-foot brick wall with a fringe of wood rails upon the top, and against this wall was leaning a stalwart police constable, surrounded by a small knot of loafers, who craned their necks and strained their eyes in the vain hope of catching some glimpse of the proceedings within.

1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, page 39:

Along this unequal way, where loafers sat on whittled benches, lounged in doorways, leaned against porch props, Dan Gustin went pegging in his high-heeled boots like a mule in a Mexican chain hobble, holding a straight course for the hotel, past the doors of temptation.

1923, George Washington Ogden, “Chapter 2”, in The Baron of Diamond Tail:

Someone must explain to Sunak about the time bomb ticking beneath his £1,000 loafers.

2023 May 31, Nigel Harris, “Comment: GBR now! We have no Plan B”, in RAIL, number 984, page 3:

A shoe with no laces, resembling a moccasin.


loafer

Borrowed from Spanish lobo (“wolf”), reinterpreted as or conflated with loafer (“idler”); compare the alternative forms which reflect other re-interpretations and conflations. Doublet of lupus and wolf.

The great menace to livestock, other than the continual battle with cold, [...] was the gray wolf. [...] The big loafers came in from everywhere.

1964, Ike Blasingame, Dakota Cowboy: My Life in the Old Days, page 72:

Cowboys had killed “loafers” at five hundred yards away with rifles. [...] Lucille was not like most cowhands and she sets out to capture the "loafer" with her lariat.

2010, Cynthia K. Rhodes, Lucille Mulhall: An Athlete of Her Time, →ISBN:

By the 1890s loafers had become such a problem that some newly organized counties, as well as certain cattle outfits, paid bounties for their scalps. For a cowboy making a dollar or so a day, wolf-hunting could be lucrative.

2016, Patrick Dearen, A Cowboy of the Pecos, page 128:

(Southwestern US dialects) A wolf, especially a grey or timber wolf.


veldskoen

en-noun

veldskoen (plural veldskoens or veldskoene)

Borrowed from Dutch veldschoen (Cape Dutch), from vel (“skin, hide”) + schoen (“shoe”); later reinforced by Afrikaans veldskoen.

[A]ll my life I've been surrounded by violence. Not in the way any of my quite long line of pioneer forefathers experienced it, leaving their veldskoen tracks through history […]

1978, André Brink, Rumours of Rain, Vintage, published 2000, page 28:

(South Africa) Originally, a shoe with untanned leather upper sewn without nails, similar to the Canadian moccasin; now generally a heavy boot for outdoor labour.


buckaroo

First attested in 1889. Derived from Spanish vaquero (“cowboy”), from Vulgar Latin vaccārius (“cowherder, rancher”); compare Merovingian Late Latin baccalarius (“cowherder serving under a farmer or feudal lord; a youth?”). Akin to vaca (“cow”), from Latin vacca + -ero. Spelling influenced by buck. Cognate to French vacher, etc. Doublet of vaquero.

cog

Many cowboy poets have a buckaroo look and feel about them.

One who sports a distinctive buckaroo style of cowboy clothing, boots, and heritage.


hold-up

→ Cebuano: holdap

→ French: hold-up

→ Tagalog: holdap

(in the plural) Women's stockings designed to be worn without suspenders.


crep

The others hollered. “He's sicked up all over his creps!” Chips exclaimed.

He skulked, like his creps was made out of lead. His skin, normally like polished bronze, was drained flat, as if he'd been bleached. When I smiled and said hello to him, Husayn looked at me from fifty miles away.

2011, Chyna Chyna, FAM: Rolling in a London Girl Gang:


shod

From Middle English shoed, past participle of shon. Doublet of shoed.


crampon

en-verb

crampon (third-person singular simple present crampons, present participle cramponning or (US) cramponing, simple past and past participle cramponned or (US) cramponed)

crampons (present singular third-person)
cramponning (participle present)
cramponing (US participle present)
cramponned (participle past)
cramponned (past)
cramponed (US participle past)
cramponed (US past)