Q: How did the high-heeled shoe for ladies become known as a "pump"? — Melanie via email

A: Asking me about a type of women's shoe is like asking a Muscovite about surfboards. True fact: Until I was around 40 years old, I didn't know the difference between a dress and a skirt. And women's shoes? Let's put it this way, I'm no Carrie Bradshaw. To me, "Manolo Blahnik" sounds like a Russian surfboard.

A quick lunch-table poll of my female teaching colleagues reveals that a "pump" is apparently a high-heeled shoe that stays on the foot by gripping the toe and heel tightly. When I asked these women for more information, they started eyeing me warily and heading off to the salad bar, so I backed off.

After lunch, it was off to the library to check out the origin of the term in some dictionaries. I suspected that these shoes are called "pumps" because their height pumps up the foot, or perhaps because wearing them inflates a person's appearance or confidence.

But every dictionary listed the origin of the "shoe" definition of "pump," which first emerged in the 1500s, as "unknown."

So I consulted the Word Guy's Word Guy: etymologist Evan Morris, whose website The Word Detective (www.word-detective.com) has often helped me out in a pinch.

Morris notes that "pump," meaning "a mechanical device for raising water," emerged in the 1400s, apparently as an imitation of the sound a pump makes. Morris concedes that the origin of the term "pump" for a shoe is uncertain but proposes a persuasive explanation:

The key element of a mechanical pump is a piston or plunger that fits very tightly into a cylinder or tube. When the piston is raised, it draws the liquid up through the tube, and a valve closes to prevent the uplifted water from draining out.

During the 1500s, someone must have noticed a resemblance between the piston's snug fit in the cylinder and the snug fit of a foot in a close-fitting shoe. So this type of foot-gripping shoe became known as a "pump."

Reinforcing this origin is the fact that the pistons in pumps were sometimes called "pump shoes," presumably because, like shoes on a person walking, they rise and fall rhythmically.

That's good enough for me. In language, as well as footwear, if the pump fits, wear it.

Rob Kyff, a teacher and writer in West Hartford, Conn., invites your language sightings. Send your reports of misuse and abuse, as well as examples of good writing, via e-mail to [email protected] or by regular mail to Rob Kyff, Creators Syndicate, 737 3rd Street, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254.

Photo credit: Mainstream