Booties

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Soft footwear reaching the ankle, sometimes for babies or dancers, or protective shoe coverings, or short boots
2. Soft ankle-covering shoes designed for warmth or protection, baby or dancer slippers, or short footwear with boot-like features
3. Foot coverings that are ankle-high such as infant slippers, dance or hospital slip-ons, or small-sized boots

Etymology: "Booties" is the plural of "booty," but the footwear sense is a separate story. Its root is the Middle Low German "bȕte," meaning distribution, exchange or loot, which entered English through Old French "butin" and gave us the older sense of plunder taken in war. That word may trace back to a Proto-Celtic root meaning profit or gains, though its exact origin remains uncertain. The shoe sense has a different parent. It is probably an alteration of "botty," a word that is itself linked to "boot," and the form may have been nudged toward the loot word through a shared sound. So the soft baby shoe and the plundered treasure look like unrelated words that happen to share a spelling, with the footwear meaning drawing on the "boot" side of the family.

Synonyms: booties, slippers, footwear