Appeal: Definition of "pump and slipper dance"
Garry J. Vass
I've got a problem defining "pump and slipper dance".
Here's the context...
<cite>
Warren was nineteen and rather pitying with those of his friends who hadn't
gone East to college. But, like most boys, he bragged tremendously about the
girls of his city when he was away from it. There was Genevieve Ormonde, who
regularly made the rounds of dances, house-parties, and football games at
Princeton, Yale, Williams, and Cornell; there was black-eyed Roberta Dillon,
who was quite as famous to her own generation as Hiram Johnson or Ty Cobb;
and, of course, there was Marjorie Harvey, who besides having a fairylike
face and a dazzling, bewildering tongue was already justly celebrated for
having turned five cart-wheels in succession during the last
pump-and-slipper dance at New Haven.
F. Scott Fitzgerald, "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", Saturday Evening Post, 1920.
</cite>
Text and artwork at the Game Cocks site:
http://www.sc.edu/fitzgerald/bernice/
So what's a "pump and slipper dance"? After a bit of surfing and reference
checking, I can't find anything to provide a substantive definition. From
the context, it looks like a cotillion type of affair, an Ivy League social
dance? Judging from his use of the term, Fitzgerald must have been
comfortable that it was commonly understood in his era.
Don't bother googling on "pump and slipper", it's a dead-end... It all just
ends back at Fitzgerald's citations.
Is it what my generation called a "sock-hop"? A dance taking place in a
gymnasium where the floor should not be scuffed? Five cart-wheels? Why was
it called "pump and slipper"?
As a side-note, the OED tells us that "pump" (=shoe) is an etymological
orphan. About 450 years ago, it just sprang into the lexicon like Topsy and
that was that.
I'm fascinated with the inherent and WayKewl double-entendre in "pump and
slipper dance" also. I think it can be revived in a post-modern context!
Is there a glossary someplace I've missed? Yale archives? A prohibition
lexicon? Some old fart that remembers? Does anybody know *exactly* what is
meant by "pump and slipper dance"?
Kind regards,
GJV
Ben Zimmer
"Garry J. Vass" wrote:
>
> So what's a "pump and slipper dance"? After a bit of surfing and reference
> checking, I can't find anything to provide a substantive definition. From
> the context, it looks like a cotillion type of affair, an Ivy League social
> dance?
You've got it. It's completely Yale-specific, and continues to be held
annually (or at least was still being held in the early '90s).
> Judging from his use of the term, Fitzgerald must have been
> comfortable that it was commonly understood in his era.
It was apparently a big event for the young socialites of the New York
area in Fitzgerald's day. Here's a New York Times headline (from the
ProQuest database):
PUMP AND SLIPPER DANCE. Many New York Society Girls Attend Event in New
Haven.; New York Times; Mar 16, 1912; pg. 13
> I'm fascinated with the inherent and WayKewl double-entendre in "pump and
> slipper dance" also. I think it can be revived in a post-modern context!
I recall various, um, collegiate jokes about the Pump and Slipper when I
was a Yale undergrad (along the lines of the joke that inspired the Led
Zeppelin tune "D'yer Maker").
--Ben
david56
>
> Greets!
>
> I've got a problem defining "pump and slipper dance".
FWIW "pumps" is now used in UK English amost exclusively for the
lightweight gym shoes worn by children below high school age (up to age
11) for indoor sports.
--
David
I say what it occurs to me to say.
The address is valid today, but I will change it to keep ahead of the
spammers.
The Bibliographer
david56 <bass.a...@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>"Garry J. Vass" wrote:
>> I've got a problem defining "pump and slipper dance".
>FWIW "pumps" is now used in UK English amost exclusively for the
>lightweight gym shoes worn by children below high school age (up to age
>11) for indoor sports.
A "pump and slipper dance" is a rather formal affair, at which men wear
dancing pumps (generally of patent leather) and women wear dancing
slippers. The patent leather pump also was worn more generally in the
period 1910-1940 by men of carefully-delineated fashion -- see David
Suchet's costuming in the "Hercule Poirot" television series, where he can
be seen often in patent leather pumps. A 'dancing slipper" needs no
further definition, I think; but for "pumps," see the material from the
<OED> below.
**********
PUMP
[Of obscure origin; no word similar in form and sense has been found
in other languages.
Suggestions have been offered of its identity with prec., and with
POMP n., but without satisfactory grounds. The Ger. pumpstiefel and
pumphosen, which have been compared, are so called from their tubular
or pipe-like legs; and there does not appear in the early use of pumps
any clear connexion with pomp or show. It may have been an echoic
word, suggested by the dull flapping sound made by slippers, as
distinct from the stamp of heavy shoes.]
a. A kind of light shoe, originally often of delicate material and
colour, kept on the foot by its close fit, and having no fastening; a
slipper for indoor wear; hence (in 17-18th c.) applied to a more
substantial low-heeled shoe of this character, esp. one worn where
freedom of movement was required, as by dancers, couriers, acrobats,
duellists, etc.; now spec., a light, low-heeled shoe, usually of
patent leather and without fastening, worn with evening dress and for
dancing, and regionally = PLIMSOLL 2; in North America, freq. = court
shoe s.v. COURT n.1 19. See also PINSON2.
1555 W. WATREMAN Fardle Facions II. iii. 124 Their shoes are not
fastened on with lachettes, but lyke a poumpe close aboute the foote.
1578 FLORIO 1st Fruites 2b, I wil buye me a payre of Pantofles and
Pumpes. 1592 SHAKES. Rom. & Jul. II. iv. 66 Thy Pump..when the single
sole of it is worne. 1598 FLORIO, Scarpini... Also dancing pumps or
little shooes. 1599 B. JONSON Ev. Man out of Hum. IV. ii, The
gallant'st courtiers kissing ladies' pumps. 1688 R. HOLME Armoury III.
14/2 Pumps are shooes with single soles and no heels. 1706 PHILLIPS
(ed. Kersey), Pumps, a sort of Shooes without Heels us'd by
Rope-dancers, Running Foot-men, &c. 1719 DE FOE Crusoe 172 They were
not like our English Shoes..; being rather what we call Pumps, than
Shoes. 1728 W. STARRAT Epistle 8 in Ramsay Poems (1877) II. 274 Well
hap'd with bountith hose and twa-sol'd pumps. 1763 Brit. Mag. IV. 547
The flat-heel'd drudges now are thrown aside For the high pumps with
toes of peeked pride. 1852 THACKERAY Esmond II. x, He was a very tall
man, standing in his pumps six feet three inches. 1880 Times 21 Sept.
4/4 Slippers, called pumps, which have only one sole and no insole,
are also sewed in the old-fashioned way. 1897 Sears, Roebuck & Co.
Catal. 203/3 Men's gymnasium shoes... Men's low cut canvas pumps,
canvas sole, [etc.]. 1908 Ibid. 813/2 A dainty pump of patent
coltskin, much in favour with fashionable women. 1928 T. Eaton & Co.
Catal. Spring & Summer, These smart, attractively-trimmed Pumps can be
had in either Black Patent or Honey Beige-shade of leather. 1946 Sun
(Baltimore) 2 Nov. 3 (Advt.), Two flattering styles to choose from
{em} black suede anklet...and classic black suede sling pump {em} both
mounted on black faille platforms. 1967 Oxford Mag. 10 Feb. 205/2
Informed by a girl that she has to wear pumps (court shoes) for her
Convocation (degree ceremony) [in Canada]. 1968 J. IRONSIDE Fashion
Alphabet 132 Dancing shoes or pumps. Usually worn by children, they
have flat soles and elastic which goes criss-cross round the ankle.
Very popular among smart nannies for their charges, especially in
bronze leather. 1974 P. WRIGHT Lang. Brit. Industry ii. 28 For
rubber-soled canvas shoes we have pumps, plimsolls, gym-shoes and
squeakers. 1978 J. KRANTZ Scruples vii. 191 Wells Cope, wearing a
Dorso sweater, pale beige twill trousers, and black velvet evening
pumps embroidered in gold, sat with Harriet.
b. In Phrases (esp. in alliterative conjunction with pantofle: cf.
PANTOFLE b). to keep toe in pump (dial.), to keep quiet or calm, not
to get excited.
1589 R. HARVEY Pl. Perc. (1860) 23 One standing all vpon his pumps
and pantables will be aboue a Shomaker. 1596 NASHE Saffron Walden Wks.
(Grosart) III. 55 Not in the pantofles of his prosperitie..but in the
single-soald pumpes of his aduersitie. 1607 BEAUMONT Woman Hater I.
ii, To it shall be bidden..All pump and pantofle, foot-cloth riders.
1831-4 S. LOVER Leg. Irel. 172 So keep your tongue in your jaw, and
your toe in your pump. 1863 TROLLOPE Rachel Ray xxiv, Keep your toe in
your pump, and say nothing.
c. attrib., as pump shoe, tie.
1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2484/4 Charles Russel, aged 14 years,..Woolen
Stockins, Pitch'd and Tarr'd, Pump Shooes..; went away from his
Master.., about 10 weeks since. 1904 Daily Chron. 5 May 8/4 The new
pump tie is the generally accepted shoe.
--
Regards, Frank Young
tip...@wam.umd.edu 703-527-7684
Post Office Box 2793, Kensington, Maryland 20891
"Videmus nunc per speculum in aenigmate... Nunc cognosco ex parte"
Garry J. Vass
news:aco7dh$c...@rac2.wam.umd.edu...
Thanks to you, Frank, Ben, and David for clarifying this!
Kind regards,
GJV