origin of name Pumps or Courts?

[ercwtom]

Hi, I am not sure if this has been answered before. Does anyone know why high heels are called Pumps or Courts. Also what are Opera Pumps? Where did the names come from? Thanks

[onyourtoes]

One explanation for pump, there are probably many, is the water pump-like sound of them slipping at the heel as one walks.

[vector]

I believe the term court shoes came as those were the shoes to wear when someone appeared before royalty, or in their "court".

[pussyinboots]

The explanation commonly given over here (Britain) is that it refers to a type of flat shoe worn for dancing during the heyday of “taking the waters” at the various spa towns. The room where the spa water was dispensed, and in which, or in adjacent rooms, social events such as dances were held during the season, was commonly called the “pump room(s)” – Hence “pumps” for the shoes which would often have been worn there. They were worn by the fashionable folk who took the waters in the famous Pump Room at Bath, England.

Originally they were worn as dress shoes by men.

[manluvheels]

What an interesting question. As a child, (again in the UK) plimsolls were known as pumps or gym shoes. Also I think Highland and country dancers would wear flat shoes that were also called pumps. So you can imagine my confusion at seeing this name for smart heels appearing on the net. I have always assumed it was an American name for court shoes. So the pump room view is interesting. As to courts, I would tend to agree that they related to appearing at a Royal Court and thus acceptably smart and proper.

[Shafted]

I had read somewhere that courts were so named because women would wear them while courting or being courted. My guess is that the word pump came from the ability of the shoe to increase one's height.

[Steve63130]

I had heard an explanation that pumps were originally called "pump-handle" shoes because the S shape is similar to a common water pump handle. Dunno if there's any truth to this, though. Steve

[Foxyheels]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_shoe

[roniheels]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_shoe

Great minds think alike. I went to the same thing when I viewed this thread.

[Puffer]

I would not dispute the Wiki explanation of the origin of the 'court' shoe, i.e. a formal dress shoe normally worn by both sexes of the upper classes in polite society (and expected as a matter of course in the Royal court). It is interesting that, for men, the court shoe is now almost extinct outside the other type of court, i.e. that administering the law. I had not previously heard Pussy's explanation of the origin of the 'pump' but it makes sense and also illustrates how the terms 'court' and 'pump' are more or less interchangeable to describe a shoe worn for formal dancing. In the southern part of the UK, one would rarely hear any shoe described as a 'pump' until recent years, when the popularity of the flat 'ballet pump' has brought the term out of the closet. In the north of England and Scotland, a light shoe worn for gymnastics or dancing is very often called a 'pump'. Perhaps someone north of the Trent can say whether the contemporary women's court shoe is also known as a pump (as is the case in the US). I suspect that some older people will use that as a dialect term but it does not seem to be used in advertisements etc, where such shoes seem invariably to be called 'courts' throughout the UK.

[quidam]

erm... for what I know, "pumps" is a deformation of the french word "pompes", with the very same meaning as in English: "POMP". That would make sense, as pumps are intended as formal attire.