Rain Boots
I like the idea that, in England, rain boots are called “Wellingtons”, after the Duke of Wellington.
This pleases me, because it makes me feel like that, in a nation so dense with history, by the time the Duke of Wellington got around to saving everyone from being conquered by Napoleon, essentially every conceivable aspect of British life was already named after someone.
“Well, your Grace, good job on that Waterloo business. We’ve had to invent a new dish to name after you — it’s a kind of steak that’s been smeared with goose liver and then baked in to a pie (?), we think it might be very good. And we’ve got…let’s see. Rubber rain boots, the pull-chain toilet, and that black stuff that we use to pave the roads, if you’d like something named after you.”
“That’s it?”
“Sorry, all that’s left.”
“I guess the boots one, then.”
May 4, 2011 at 9:17 am
Colloquially known as “wellies” by most Britons, too. But I thought they were called “gum boots” in the US, not “rain boots”. They can be used in non-rainy conditions, too.
May 4, 2011 at 9:25 am
I have never heard them called gum boots, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, I probably haven’t heard a lot of things. Most often I hear them referred to as rain boots, though I agree that this is technically a misnomer, since they can be used whether or not it’s raining.
Apparently “gumboot” is the popular term in New Zealand, where they all just go nuts over the idea of gumboots. They have special gumboot dances that they do on Gumboot Day and everything.
May 4, 2011 at 9:30 am
Webster’s acknowledges “gum boots” as a real thing, but I never heard of ’em.
May 4, 2011 at 10:22 am
Outside of a Paul Simon song, I’ve never heard the term.
So that must mean that after 1986, America decided “gum boots” could only be used by Paul Simon.
May 5, 2011 at 2:07 am
Its all making sense now, my grade school teacher used to use that terminology, and I thought she was always referring to her husband. lol
May 5, 2011 at 5:07 am
I’ve always heard these boots called “galoshes” or something like that. I will admit that I grew up in Alabama, so this may be some weird southern dialectical quirk.
May 6, 2011 at 5:47 pm
Yeah, in the South they’re galoshes. Little do the southerners know it’s an Americanised french term. Based on the Gaulish boat shoes, apparently it’s so old even the Romans adopted it. Oh wikipedia, how much we love you.
However, wellingtons/gum boots are not boat shoes, nor are they French, but Americans in the south saw a boot that performed the same function as the older, lower topped galoshes, and gave it the same name.
Also, it’s possible Russians call them galoshes too.
May 6, 2011 at 5:59 pm
I’m familiar with the term “galoshes”. I feel like we use it up here in the North, too, but it may just be that I know it from a book, or something.
May 8, 2011 at 2:11 am
No, “galoshes” is a common term around here, too.
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February 14, 2012 at 2:19 am
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