History of "heeled"

[kflach]

I understand the term "heeled" means that you're is carrying a pistol. Does anyone know how the term came to mean that?

[Russ T Chambers]

Came across this in Peter Watts A Dictionary of the Old West:

Heeled
To be armed with a gun. A man's heels were said to be armed when they were spurred; this usage may have derived from the practice of arming the heels of fighting cocks with spurs.

[kflach]

I never would have guessed that. But then again I've never been to a cock fight.

Thanks!

[northwestgrizzly]

Its interesting to see how little information is out there on that subject.

[St. George]

Who'd care?

A lot of the meaning behind slang terms is lost to the Mists of Time, and once America became as 'melded' as it did - local/regional words transferred, but the meanings were 'known' - so the definitions didn't.

Language is a transitory thing when progress and innovation get themselves involved.

An example is the term - 'faster'n a striped-assed ape' - a term that's pretty much universally known across the globe, yet with 'no' underlying explanation behind it.

Yet if you use the term, 'everyone' knows exactly what you're talking about - so someplace back in those Mists of Time, mankind agreed amongst themselves that 'those' apes were considerably faster than the run-of-the-mill ones, and the phrase remained in common speech.

Go figure...

A term like 'heeled' stayed on long after spurs were laid aside - but what ensured it's longevity was it's association with the 'Romance of the West'.

That's a good enough reason - no further explanation's really needed.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[northwestgrizzly]

I disagree....I enjoy knowing the origins of both individual words and/or a phrase. It may make no difference in the long run other than I have the satisfaction of understanding those beginnings, but thats really all that matters when it all boils down.

[River City John]

They do become archaic, such as "hoist with his own petard".

[St. George]

Yet they stay on in somewhat common usage - long after folks have forgotten exactly what a 'petard' might've been, or how someone may've hoisted himself with his own...

And those 'are' mighty swift apes...

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[Hangtown Frye]

Um... How about from being "Well Heeled", i.e. well dressed, well informed, well off, etc. That in and of itself came from the days when heels on shoes were a new and fashionable thing in the 17th Century, so when you were "well heeled" you were smartly dressed, and indeed "putting your best foot forward".  (Another essay on that one some time).

Anyway, pretty simple. If you're "heeled", you're dressed and accoutred, which in that day and place meant also armed.

Cheers,

Gordon

[Professor Marvel]

Yet they stay on in somewhat common usage - long after folks have forgotten exactly what a 'petard' might've been, or how someone may've hoisted himself with his own...

Good Lord St George - you mean the general populace is no longer familiar with that essential tool, the petard?!?

yhs
prof marvel

[St. George]

Alas, Professor - no...

Oh, they'll trot it out as a statement, to be sure - but they're clueless when asked 'what's a 'petard'?

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Let's see, if I remember right, a petard was a form of short sword or dagger used in two handed swordplay before the use of pistols ... so hoist on his on petard was when the sword fighter had his dagger lifted from him, and was impaled by it in an upward stroke that would lift his feet off the ground (if done enthusiastically enough).

My favorite Shakespearian anachronism is that a person was so uneducated he 'didn't know a cod from a codpiece' LOL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Codpiece

[St. George]

Try again.

A 'petard' was an early, hand-thrown bomb.

A grenade - but a fairly large one - lit by a fuze and often assembled by an individual who knew the basics of bomb-making - but perhaps not all of the idiosyncracies of fuze-making.

To be 'hoist with his own petard' was to mean that he was blown up by his own bomb...

You can look it up.

Vaya,

Scouts Out!

[WaddWatsonEllis]

Touche'

I stand corrected, and now can say that I have not wasted the day 'cause I have learned something ... I must have confused it with poignard ....


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poignard

[Hangtown Frye]

Actually, a Petard is a small mortar-like artillery piece which was used as a breeching tool for blowing open gates and the like of cities under siege.  Often they were cast with rings on them to accept nails, and they could be nailed muzzle-first to the door or gate to be blown.  It took several men to carry one (often under fire from the defenders) to the gate being breeched.  You nailed it (or otherwise fixed it) to the door/gate, lit the fuse and ran, hopefully not into the defender's fire.  If the fuse was too short, well, you certainly would be hoisted a ways via the blast.

Cheers,

Gordon

[ChuckBurrows]

An excellent on line source for looking such things up - http://www.etymonline.com/ - I've cross referenced it often enough to now trust it 99% of the time..........

heel (n.) 
O.E. hela, from P.Gmc. *khangkh- (cf. O.N. hæll, O.Fris. hel, Du. hiel), related to O.E. hoh "hock." Heeled "provided with money" is 1880 in Amer.Eng., from earlier sense "furnished with a gun, armed" (1866), from still earlier sense "furnish (a gamecock) with a heel-like spur" (1562).

[Books OToole]

Actually, a Petard is a small mortar-like artillery piece which was used as a breeching tool for blowing open gates and the like of cities under siege.  Often they were cast with rings on them to accept nails, and they could be nailed muzzle-first to the door or gate to be blown.  It took several men to carry one (often under fire from the defenders) to the gate being breeched.  You nailed it (or otherwise fixed it) to the door/gate, lit the fuse and ran, hopefully not into the defender's fire.  If the fuse was too short, well, you certainly would be hoisted a ways via the blast.

Cheers,

Gordon

An early form of a shaped charge; designed specificaly to blow open doors.  Pretty cool actually.


Books

[Professor Marvel]

Alas, Professor - no...

Oh, they'll trot it out as a statement, to be sure - but they're clueless when asked 'what's a 'petard'?

I am concerned when the populace makes use of a phrase without really understanding it's meaning - and when further the phrase has been mangled. I am reminded of those who use the phrase "icut and dried", when in fact the original phrase is " cut and try" - referring to an unskilled carpenter who is unable to correctly measure and cut a board "in one go" ; essentially he would cut the board and try it for fit several times before getting it right.

However I am guilty myself of having mangled the words to numerous songs (as opposed to phrases) due to my poor hearing. I transmorgrified "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" to "Judy in the Sky over China"; and the phrase "How do I get you alone" to "How do I get to a phone".
On this family oriented forum I fear I cannot divulge how I mangled "Looking for a lover who won't blow my cover" :-)

yhs
prof Marvel 

[Don Nix]

I had always understood that the meaning of "Cut and dried' refered to the cutting of hay or whert  when it was cut ny hand and shocked in the field to dy. the meaniing being when the hay was all put up the work was over end done finished. complered1.
But the cut and try  makes more sense.

[River City John]

"However I am guilty myself of having mangled the words to numerous songs (as opposed to phrases) due to my poor hearing. I transmorgrified "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" to "Judy in the Sky over China"; and the phrase "How do I get you alone" to "How do I get to a phone".
On this family oriented forum I fear I cannot divulge how I mangled "Looking for a lover who won't blow my cover" :-)

yhs
prof Marvel"

Professor Marvel,
let's not forget the always solicitous refrain:

"Don't go out tonight,
They're bound to take your life.
There's a bathroom on the right!" - Credence Clearwater Revival

RCJ