The Rice University Neologisms Database

shoes, typically athletic/tennis/basketball shoes but references to broader shoedom have been encountered (broader usage often used for dress shoes). Note that the term refers only to a pair of shoes, one shoe is not a ‘kick.’ Type of Formation: zero derivation, metonymic meaning change from the act of kicking to the article of clothing closely associated with it. Possible Reason Used: Although the used of this term among the athletic community may suggest that this term serves as a jock shibboleth, in actuality this is not the case. Since kicks has been allowed to passes out of athletic circles and into general usage (initially among friends of athletics and then spreading throughout language networks) we may assume the following: (1) That the reasonable ease of lexical diffusion suggests the term is not highly valued for defining a social identity (ie not a shibboleth) (2) That the term has some degree of covert prestige that makes it valuable outside usage outside the metonymic relationship (i.e. a soccer player may well call a pair of cleats ‘kicks’ because that is what they are used for and yet a skater boy may feel completely justified calling a pair of Vans ‘kicks’). The source of this prestige is unclear for the language has not arrived at a point where the term ‘shoe’ is selected against for informal conversation (eg resistance to overtly prestigious forms), thus the use of ‘kicks’ likely has more to do with the words innovative nature and general trendiness (a token for prestige).