Where Do Shoe Names Come From

[Guest]

Mule. Who would ever think a mule is a shoe. Why is it called a mule.

Pump. SSame thing. Or stiletto.

Some of the euro names are a bit strange too.

[Shyheels]

Mules come from Ancient Roman times - mulleus calceus, purplish coloured shoes worn by high ranking magistrates.

[Schnubab]

Stiletto heels must surely be named after the knife/blade type called a stiletto (a long thin blade)?

[jetheelsfan]

How about the "Oxford"  for a name?  And who was "Mary-Jane" and why is she famous?

[mlroseplant]

The Oxford I know. It comes from the University of Oxford in England. Apparently, the young students there popularized the style enough sometime in the 19th century that we call them by that name to this day.

The high heeled version that is a staple of my wardrobe probably came much later.

[Shyheels]

Oxfords are sometimes also known as Balmorals, after the royal castle in Scotland. Prince Albert and Queen Victoria had sturdy walking shoes made for themselves for strolling the grounds and grousemoors and these walking shoes became popular back in the day.

[maninpumps]

How about pumps ? Where did that name come from ?

[Shyheels]

Pumps? Nobody seems to know. Not even the OED seems sure. Their best guess is that it derives from an old Dutch word 'pampoesje' which was a low cut-shoe. 

[jetheelsfan]

How about the LOAFER?

[Lvemadomina]

How about pumps ? Where did that name come from ?

I believe "pumps" came around because of the sound they made when people walked in them? Like it had to do with the sound of your foot moving around a bit in the shoe, much like the mechanical movement inside a waterpump. This might sound weird, I knew it was something to do with that though, I may not be explaining it clearly enough.

[Histiletto]

Before the stiletto was used in referring to most thin high heels, spike was the common term. Spikes generally resembled the fasteners used to secure the rails of train tracks to the 8" X 8" X 8' redwood cross board supports. This fastener had a large offset head/top that tapered to a chiseled point, Likewise the spike heels had a large sloped seating area that connected under the sloping heel of the shoe and it tapered with a concaved shaping to form a somewhat thin shaft towards the lower part of the heel. The stiletto kind of condensed the concave shaping so that more of the lower part of the heel was a thin shaft much like the thinness of a school pencil and/or a 16 penny wood nail. The appeal or allure of the thin heel tip was kind of dampened when the wearer found the small tip became more easily eroded or broken with hardly any use at all, which meant they had to be even more cautious and careful about walking on certain surfaces. 

[jetheelsfan]

The name "dOrsay" for a pump with the inside open

[RonC]

Might want to read the article at this link.

http://www.word-detective.com/2010/04/pump-shoe/

 

 

 

[Cl0setheels]

Pumps? Nobody seems to know. Not even the OED seems sure. Their best guess is that it derives from an old Dutch word 'pampoesje' which was a low cut-shoe. 

As a Dutchie, I've never heard that word before. Had to google it to know what it was. Lol

[Shyheels]

It is a very old word!

[meganiwish]

Shyheels hits the nail on the head, in that there's probably no way of knowing, because there's probably nothing to know.  The search for reasons why particular words are used is usually fruitless, because there's normally no reason (Golly! What a lot of adverbs!  Sorry.)

The process whereby a group of arbitrary sounds acquires meaning is a mysterious one, the more so because one often understands a word at first hearing.  Of course, some new words are deliberate coinages, and some driven by association.  Still, I'm most distrustful of explanations like that in the article above.  Altogether too tortuous.  The onomatopoeic explanations are, frankly, laughable.

Shyheels's interesting Old Dutch etymology for 'pump' illustrates another problem.  To an extent one can follow a word's journey through history and one can see when it first arrives in print.  But then the question is, 'Why pampoesje ?'  The answer again is, 'No-one knows.'

As for it being a very old word, well that's relative.  'Milk' and 'water', now there are two very likely ancient words.  All the Indo-European languages have words for milk which historically had the sounds '-l-k-'.  Likewise, all the words for water have links to an ancestor with '-gwa-'.  Most probably these are onomatopoeic, the former mimicking the sound of suckling, the latter the sound of drinking.  They might be some of the earliest words ever.

It's playtime now, class dismissed.