It's springtime, folks, and with the warmer temperatures, people are breaking out the warmer weather clothes, and with the warmer weather also comes that old wonderful fashion faux pas:
Sandals with Socks!!!!
Contemplating the yearly reappearance of this combination of footwear, I decided to look up the etymology of sandals and socks, interested to find out the classical origins of the two.
Sandals came from Latin sandalium, itself coming from the Greek sandalion. Apparently these words referred to the same thing that they refer to today: "a kind of shoe with an open-work top, originally and still frequently consisting of a sole fastened by straps or [strings] passed over the instep and round the ankle" (OED).
Socks, of course, are "a short stocking covering the foot and usually reaching to the calf of the leg", however, this definition only goes back to around 1327; the older definition (originating around 725) was "a covering for the foot, of the nature of a light shoe, slipper, or pump" (OED). Our word sock comes from the Old English socc which came from the Latin soccus, "a light, low-heeled shoe or slipper".
Thus both words are of classical derivation, though I don't think that they ever combined sandals and socks themselves.
Photo thanks to www.rock102rocks.com, all etymologies and definitions are from the OED.
There is some evidence to suggest that the Roman soldiers stationed at Hadrian's Wall in the (now) UK wore socks with their sandals.... ;)
ReplyDeleteYet somehow I doubt many sandles-with-socks wearers are trying to connect with their inner centurion . . .
ReplyDelete