Kalleh's shoe-poll got me to thinking.

How did we get the name pumps for a certain kind of shoe? What do they have to do with pumping?

Good question, and as much as I have heard that word used for shoes, I've never thought to question it.

Here's what I found in the online etymology dictionary: "'low shoe without fasteners,' 1555, perhaps echoic of the sound made when walking in them, or perhaps from Du. pampoesje, from Javanese pampoes, of Arabic origin."

I had no idea it was such an old term. I tend to think of pumps as plain shoes with heels, and the AHD confirms this, except it says origin unknown.

I don't think of pumps as being low shoes, really, either. Well . . . compared to my very comfortable, practical librarian shoes, pumps are definitely fancy heels.

I was wondering if the "low" meant low on the ankle, rather than a "low heel," though I am not sure.

The word pump isn't really used here for that kind of shoe.
Pumps were what I wore in PE (gym) at school. A bit like a very flimsy canvas topped training shoe.
I've heard the american usage and am familiar with its meaning but I've never heard a British person use it the same way.

Well! That's very interesting. Do you call them sneakers and tennis shoes and trainers, or not?

At school I called them plimsolls.

Women don't wear "pumps" in England? I didn't know that. What are high-heeled shoes called them?

I am vaguely remembering my kids using Bob's definition of "pumps," though I am not sure at all.

What the heck is a plimsoll?

Gosh, based on the title of this thread, I thought it was gonna be about sexy Russian spies seducing men in the CIA. That vamp would let him play with her toebox until the heel would come unlaced and have his tongue wagging at last. Hummfff... some gumshoe I'd make!

Quote "...What are high-heeled shoes called them?..."

They are called (and wait for this)...high heeled shoes!

A plimsoll mark, or line, is the (usually) red line on a ship that marks the point above which water should not go when it is being loaded and setting lower in the water. Named after Samuel Plimsoll. It's also what the British used to call tennis shoes from the red line that used to run around them.

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It's also what the British used to call tennis shoes from the red line that used to run around them.

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And here I thought it showed the level of blood poisioning after being bitten by one of those critters from Oz. Ohhh, when will I ever learn...

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Originally posted by Asa Lovejoy:
Gosh, based on the title of this thread, I thought it was gonna be about sexy Russian spies seducing men in the CIA. That vamp would let him play with her toebox until the heel would come unlaced and have his tongue wagging at last. Hummfff... some gumshoe I'd make!

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I read a story like that once . . . I wonder if you've read it too!

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I read a story like that once . . . I wonder if you've read it too!

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Nope. Can you find it?

HA! It's not for general consumption, Asa.

We mentioned plimsolls earlier in the eponyms thread.

Sometimes I find these threads a bit like parallel play! For me, it is back to "pump."

My son and I were listening to a basketball game tonight, and the announcer said that he "pumped" the ball to so-and-so. I asked my son what that meant, and he said, "I don't know; probably a fast pass." So, it is a basketball term, at any rate. Oh, and there are "pump fakes" in basketball, too, my son told me, but I wouldn't be able to explain them.

Kalleh,

"Pumping" the basketball is throwing, tossing, firing it to the right person. A "fake pump" is a movement to the right with the ball, to get that defensive person out of your face, while you then "pump" it to the left.

Clear as mud?

And what do they call all that stuff they do while they're playing "Sweet Georgia Brown" over the PA?