[Ads-l] Kicks

[Wilson Gray]

Well, she cracked up over
The solid fit
Walkin' down the street
In her brand new _kicks_
- "Betty-Lou Got a New Pair of Shoes"
Written and recorded by Bobby Freeman, 1958

Used as a slang term for "shoes" in BE since the '40's, at least. (I don't
have HDAS ready to hand.) A semantic variant is "stomps," with the same
meaning.

On Mon, May 18, 2015 at 11:42 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Kicks
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Just wanted to do a quick check on status of "kicks". I vaguely recall it
> being used as a soccer/football (any football) reference to specialized
> shoes/cleats. For example, one of the texts messages duplicated in the
> Wells Report referred to "kicks" (there's some dispute as to whether this
> was code for specific pressure or actually a request for a pair of signed
> shoes).
>
> But, at least for the past year or two, I keep hearing it used as a
> reference to any shoes. Just got a Target email, promoting "All kicks on
> sale".
>
> I'm sure Jon and Ben are keeping track of this. Was it always a reference
> for all shoes or did it evolve?
>
> VS-)
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



-- 
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org