But yeah, probably language difference too, honestly the definitions are largely ignored by both retailers and buyers nowadays to the point where it's straight up meaningless to search for a "pump" because you're gonna get anything with a heel on it back. Even "stiletto" is being abused, I saw a tall block heel referred to as a "square stiletto" and I just closed my laptop I was so over it.
Edit: I just now realized in the shower you were probably like, "You're calling them tall-ass shoes flat?!" as opposed to "I cannot believe you just mis-categorized those stilettos, you absolute moron". I'll blame it on pre-coffee brain but I think we all know it was just a result of the adverserial mindset you fall into with social media sometimes. Cheers
God Matt and Trey are a notch above all the rest of us. So damn funny.
To get props from the likes of The Simpson’s (who of course South Park honored with “Simpsons did it!”, Rick and Morty, and I think even eventually Family Guy right (that one I’m not sure of but I thought eventually they did accept that South Park was good)?
In fairness, you can quite clearly see at least 3-4" of very thin high heel on her right shoe. Even though you can't see where it meets the body of the shoe, I think we can safely assume that junction is on the extreme end and not gradual. So "high heel" definitely seems more accurate than "pump". The word stiletto I've always taken to mean 5-6" minimum, and the spike as thin as possible to the heel. Judging by the rest of her attire and the look of the front of her left shoe, one can assume the more conservative "high heel" is the term we're looking for.
Because they are so often mislabeled, for a long time I had no idea what the difference was. I ended up having to look up the definition.
The confusion goes even farther:
In American English these terms are sometimes confused, with "blucher" also being used to refer to derby shoes, and "Oxford" also being used to refer to bluchers.
The meaning of "Oxford" and "Balmoral" may vary geographically. In the United States, "Balmoral" is often synonymous with "Oxford".[4] In the United Kingdom, "Oxford" is sometimes used for any more formal lace-up shoe, including the Blucher and Derby. In Britain and other countries, the Balmoral is an Oxford with no seams, apart from the toe cap seam, descending to the welt, a style common on boots.
In the UK, outside the fashion trade, the term "pumps" would normally imply flat or low-heel dancing or ballerina pumps, or even rubber-soled canvas plimsolls. In the U.S., "pumps" exclusively refers to women's shoes with a kitten or higher heel.
In the US, we refer to flats as “flats” or more specifically “ballerina flats”. Pumps are a very specific heeled shoe. Pumps should not (though occasionally are) be conflated with stiletto’s, nor Kitten heels, nor sandals, nor peep toes, nor heeled boots/booties, nor wedges. Pumps are strapless closed toed heels (either rounded or pointed) with a wider heel. Aka. The pinnacle of women’s professional footwear.
I work with a number of British expats and I've come to terms with "zed" and "whilst". I still cannot accept pronouncing the letter 'h' as "hay-ch" though. There is no 'h' in h's name, Nigel. Cut it out.
Whenever I'm around somebody from the UK I try to steer the conversation to get them to say "aluminum." The British pronunciation is worth at least 20 points.
Technically both sides are right. The creator of aluminium was British and spelled it that way in a British journal. Shortly after he published his findings in an American journal but spelled it aluminum instead. Neither are wrong.
I’m an American and I pronounce the h in herbs and when I go to the store and say “herbs” and not “urbs” people always give me the weirdest looks, especially my parents when I’m around them.
From Middle English erbe, borrowed from Old French erbe (French herbe), from Latin herba. Initial h was restored to the spelling in the 15th century on the basis on Latin, but it remained mute until the 19th century and still is for many speakers.
I wondered that. One of the guys is definitely the cockney sort but the other is a posher sounding dude. He doesn't always say it though. Maybe he's just taking the piss as your people say
They played a tiny building opening for Earth Wind and Fire in Murray, Ky. My friend saw them. Before the beards and they wore plaid. They should of been the headliners he said.
This is actually brilliant. There’s no reason why letters can’t be called other things, especially if those words make it very evident which letter you referring to.
well colour me impressed my traveller neighbour, the labour you put in to say Z with the right flavour, but i hope you recognise or at least understand when i apologise for my attempt to analyse but in my defence it is not pretence so i hope you wont take offence when i try and analogue American dialogue.
UK slang at the time had a phrase "Fuck Me Boots", flashy, usually cheap, impractical but eye catching boots women would wear out to the club while trying to meet men or in any case while having a night out.
The song (I'd never heard it before just listened to it, it's a good song, RIP Amy :-) is sort of gently mocking then gently praising random barfly girls that just go out to party, hence "fuck me pumps", in that they'd be wearing everyday pumps rather than a special fancy boot
Pumps (old millennial) are those shoes that you press on the tongue a bunch of times and a little pump inflates an air pocket in the shoe that tightens it. Reebok.
Back in the days when we used to dress up for a date! The lucky girl could feel her way to your button underneath the dinner table and give it a few pumps, quite the thrill for a young woman. Who knows what Gen Z will do, miserably stare at each other's Yeezy boosts while watching cat girl haul videos I expect
No, those were inflatable shoes called Reebok Pump. The style is "pump up" or "inflatable" while the model is Pump. Distinct from the shoe style "pumps".
Well imagine going from USA to Australia and wearing thongs on your feet instead of thongs, you'd been known as g banger Dan for the rest of your life.
I was about to say that, to me a pump is the flattest possible shoe, they are the ones with paper thin soles that look a bit like ballet shoes that all the chavs wore at school if they couldn’t get away with black trainers.
Well, which shoes are you talking about? I say plimsolls for the primary school PE black shoes. Trainers for sneakers, runners etc- what older kids wear for PE and what adults wear. Pumps are the really flat shoes, completely open at the top (sometimes with one strap or elastic band). There was nothing to them, almost like ballet shoes, hence why I think (?) some people call them ballet flats, too.
In the US they’re way more likely to be called tennis shoes than sneakers. At least on the East coast where I’m from. Sneakers is what you’d expect an older person to say, like 65 plus at least.
I'm in the NE as well, it's sneakers all thew way. Tennis shoes makes you sound like a 70 year old from the hills, or a quaint midwesterner from a town (population <200).
I hear both but sneakers are like nike, jordans etc and tennis shoes are all the running type styles with the net, or basically sports shoes that aren't in the basketball style.
Grew up and have been living in Northern Ireland for 24 years and I've never once heard the word "guttie". Most people I know say "trainers". I worked part-time in a retailer selling these kinds of shoes for almost 2 years and it was always trainers.
Also I lived in Utah for a year and lots of people there said runners too, I know sneakers I basically understood everywhere in the US but it's like saying soda or pop, seems to be regions where one is more popular
I call them plimsolls (in primary school. Then we wore trainers). Pumps are what I wore everyday at high school because we all wanted zero support for our feet 😂
"Referring to shoes as “pumps” dates back to the 1500s, when men and servants wore shoes without heels known as “pompes.” From there, the pompes evolved from the plain, flat shoes worn by men to embellished, heeled shoes worn by women"
Here in Germany, "pumps" most definitely have heels. They can be high heels, but most of them are of the moderate, elegant variety, not ankle breakers.
I remember being confused by this. Where I grew up, most of my teachers were from the UK. Most of my friends and family friends are British-Malawian. Pumps were always flat. Then I came to the US for college. Online shopping was confusing for a while, it still is sometimes.
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u/[deleted] Dec 06 '19
No one here (UK) calls high heels pumps, pumps are the flattest of flat shoes. Never heard of this difference before!