the.com/ballet slipper
A shoe that pretends feet are optional and pain is aesthetic.
means A soft, lightweight slipper with a thin, flexible sole, worn by dancers for training and performance to grip the floor while letting the foot flex and point.
from 'Ballet' arrived in English from French ballet, itself from Italian balletto, a little diminutive of ballo ('dance'), tracing back to Late Latin ballare ('to dance') — a root possibly related to Greek ballizein, 'to dance or jump about.' 'Slipper' is older and plainer English, naming any shoe you simply slip the foot into, from the verb 'slip.' Put together, the phrase is a straightforward 18th–19th century pairing: the dance borrowed its name from the Continent, the shoe kept its humble homegrown English title.
- origin
- Descended from 17th century heeled court dance shoes
- pointe cousin
- Soft slippers are not the same as rigid pointe shoes
- construction
- Leather or canvas sole split for better foot articulation
- color term
- Gave its name to a pale pink paint and polish shade