Pantofle

pantofle, n. : “A slipper for the foot” (Webster). (Pronounced pan-tah’-ful or pan-toe’-ful).

This word has origins from several languages, not limited to the ones Webster lists. He mentions French, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish, and Russian, each of which has a slightly different rendering of the word (such as pantuflo in Spanish and tufel in Russian).

As a fun fact, there is actually an old fable titled “The Pantofles” by the Italian of Gozzi. It takes place in Bagdad and involves a miserly merchant. All I will divulge is the moral at the end: “…the miser learned to his cost the ill effects of not buying a new pair of shoes.”

If you want to read the story, click here. It takes you to Google’s digital version of The Casquet of Literature: Being a Selection of Poetry and Prose… by Charles Gibbon. You can find “The Pantofles” on page 360. Happy hunting!

Since this word is a common household object, we can have a lot of fun with it:

 

Panicked at the sound of the clock striking midnight, Cinderella dashed down the castle steps toward her waiting coach. In her haste to escape the prince’s questions, she left behind one of her glass pantofles.

That very night the prince vowed to try the sparkling pantofle on every fair foot in his kingdom until he found the bellibone with whom he was desperately in love.

 

Shout out to my sister for this example; when she heard what the weekly word was going to be, she immediately thought of Cinderella’s glass pantofle and I couldn’t resist including it.

 

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