the.com/wingtip
perforated leather pretending the tiny holes were ever for draining swamp water.
means A style of shoe (or the toe-cap that defines it) featuring a pointed leather piece that curves back along both sides in a shape resembling a bird's spread wing, often decorated with perforations.
from A plainly descriptive compound of "wing" and "tip" — the toe-cap's tapered, swept-back point reminded someone of a bird's outstretched wingtip, and the name stuck. "Wing" comes through Middle English from a Scandinavian source (compare Old Norse "vængr"), while "tip" is an old Germanic word for a pointed end. The decorative holes have a name of their own — "brogueing" — and the popular story that the perforations once drained water from boots crossed through Scottish and Irish bogs is a genuine folk tradition, though by the time the wingtip became a dapper city shoe the holes were pure ornament.
- origin
- Scottish brogues punched holes to drain bog water
- name source
- toe cap shaped like a bird's spread wing
- decoration
- the perforations are called broguing, now purely cosmetic
- aviation
- plane wingtips curl up to cut fuel-wasting vortices
douglas dc-3 — aircraft with distinctive angled wingtips, first flew 1935, revolutionized commercial aviation
boeing 747 — iconic jumbo jet with folding wingtip extensions added in 2006 to improve fuel efficiency
airbus a380 — world's largest passenger airliner with 79-foot wingtip fences designed for aerodynamic efficiency