Heelless

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Lacking a heel, such as a shoe, sock or boot that has a flat or missing back section at the base of the foot
2. Describing footwear or hosiery built without the raised or rear portion that supports the back of the foot
3. Without a heel, referring to a slipper, stocking or similar item whose sole runs flat from toe to back edge

Etymology: "Heelless" is simply a compound of "heel" and the suffix "-less," and the suffix is the older and more interesting half. "-Less" descends from Old English "-lēas," which meant "free from" or "lacking," and it is the same root that gave Old English the adjective "lēas" meaning "false" or "devoid of." Its ancestry reaches back through Proto-Germanic forms such as "lausaz," which is ultimately tied to the Proto-Indo-European idea of loosening or releasing, so a "-less" word originally described something loosened from what it lacked. The base word "heel" comes from Middle English "hele," inherited from Old English and rooted in the same ancient Germanic stock as the word for the back of the foot. Attaching "-less" to it produces the plain sense of a thing without a heel, a meaning that was attached to shoes and feet in English usage.

Antonyms: heeled