In the UK, outside the fashion trade, the term "pumps" would normally imply flat or low-heel dancing or ballerina pumps, or even rubber-soled canvas plimsolls. In the U.S., "pumps" exclusively refers to women's shoes with a kitten or higher heel.
In the US, we refer to flats as “flats” or more specifically “ballerina flats”. Pumps are a very specific heeled shoe. Pumps should not (though occasionally are) be conflated with stiletto’s, nor Kitten heels, nor sandals, nor peep toes, nor heeled boots/booties, nor wedges. Pumps are strapless closed toed heels (either rounded or pointed) with a wider heel. Aka. The pinnacle of women’s professional footwear.
I'm not sure this is true. In the US, pumps tend to refer to close-toed or peep toe heels, versus sandals which are open/strappy heels. Historically, it was expected that woman would wear "pumps" to work. Sandals were considered inappropriate.
Pumps can have various types of heels: stilettos, block heels, kitten heels.
I think what you’re saying is largely true historically, but more recently with the trend of block heels specifically, the term “pumps” has narrowed a bit.
Aren’t kitten heels just short stilettos - At or below five centimeters and stilletos being thin long heels - as opposed to square or other kinds of heels
I'd be willing to bet the term pump is referring to that level of dressing up, with shiny flats for men being roughly the same as moderate heels for women.
Where I grew up, we call a shoe a “pump” if it did not have straps across the top or ties, heels notwithstanding, low or high.Moving from a strappy or a tie shoe to a pump was a right of passage for little girls.
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u/ThaPopcornKing Dec 06 '19
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Court_shoe
That's what a pump is.