They're lowest on the totem pole of human accouterments, yet their importance is shown in the numerous metaphors with which they enrich the language. We're talking about shoes.
We're told to walk in others' shoes before criticizing them. After all, there's no better way to find where the shoe pinches. Sometimes we have to do our best in filling someone's shoes. At times, we wait for the other shoe to drop. This last one has an interesting story behind it. An inn dweller is dead tired when he returns to his room late at night. As he begins to undress, he removes a shoe and drops it on the floor. Realizing that the big thud must have woken up the fellow in the room below, he takes off the other shoe and puts it down gently. After a considerable time a voice screams from the room under him, "For God's sake, drop the other shoe! I want to go back to sleep." You don't need to wait for any shoes to drop here. Every day this week we'll bring you a word related to those humble accessories that truly carry us around. calced (kalst) adjective Wearing shoes. [From Latin calceus (shoe).] Today's word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=calced The word calced is usually encountered in the names of certain religious orders, calced Carmelites, for example, who are allowed to wear shoes, as opposed to those who aren't: the discalced. The word calzone for the turnover made of pizza dough is derived (via Italian) from the same Latin root calceus (shoe). -Anu Garg (gargATwordsmith.org) "While also following a routine of prayer and meditation, nuns in calced orders usually enjoyed a far more comfortable life." Susan Migden Socolow; The Women of Colonial Latin America; Cambridge University Press; 2000. Sponsors' Messages: Subscribe to http://delanceyplace.com -- a carefully selected non-fiction book excerpt free to your email each day. It's the thinking person's daily quote. Ever wonder why we don't just talk, we chew the fat? Derivation, a hilarious game about word and phrase origins. A great gift! http://entspire.com ............................................................................ It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning. -Bill Watterson, comic strip artist (1958- ), in his comic strip Calvin & Hobbes Discuss this week's words on our bulletin board: http://wordsmith.org/board Remove, change address, gift subs: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words/calced.wav http://wordsmith.org/words/calced.ram Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/calced.html This message was sent to "[email protected]".
