From the Word Fugitives archive...

Shoelace fitting

Please note: This page is a read-only archive of messages posted in the Word Fugitives conference of Post & Riposte.

Topic:	5) Shoelace fitting (1 of 7), Read 67 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Barbara Wallraff ([email protected])
Date:	Wednesday, December 02, 1998 11:02 AM

Gillian Wogin, of Ottawa, Canada, writes: "It must have a name: that little cylindrical device on the end of a shoelace that stops the lace from unravelling and allows you to poke it through the grommets to lace a shoe up. Any parent must have scores of occasions to mention this shortlived gadget, but what to call it?"

Topic:	5) Shoelace fitting (2 of 7), Read 64 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Randi Hansen ([email protected])
Date:	Wednesday, December 02, 1998 03:02 PM

The cylindrical end to a shoelace actually does have a name. It's called an aglet.

Topic:	5) Shoelace fitting (3 of 7), Read 63 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Barbara Wallraff ([email protected])
Date:	Wednesday, December 02, 1998 03:23 PM

Well done, Randi. If we gave out prizes, you'd get one for sure. (Maybe a nice new pair of shoelaces, with pristine aglets?) And so would a fellow named Dave Williams, who knows why he deserves a prize too. Dave, are you there?

Topic:	5) Shoelace fitting (4 of 7), Read 48 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Michael Fischer ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, December 03, 1998 10:13 PM

...and when you break your aglet, the feazings are exposed, making it very difficult to lace up!

Topic:	5) Shoelace fitting (5 of 7), Read 55 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Barbara Wallraff ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, December 03, 1998 10:17 PM

Yowza! Extra credit points for you, Michael. Good word!

Topic:	5) Shoelace fitting (6 of 7), Read 48 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Michael Fischer ([email protected])
Date:	Friday, December 04, 1998 01:46 PM

>Yowza!

this interjection brings to mind "Gadzooks!", which the Brits (gotta love 'em) have turned into the noun gadzookery meaning the use of archaisms (as in a(n) historical novel). but I digress....

Topic:	5) Shoelace fitting (7 of 7), Read 18 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Jason Taniguchi ([email protected])
Date:	Monday, December 07, 1998 06:14 PM

From the Toronto Serial Diners Collective:

It is indisputably an aglet. But if you wanted a different name for it, you might call it a "lacepin" or, somewhat onomatopoetically, a "laceskwunch".

One Serial Diner insists that there should also be a word for the phenomenon of what happens to the end of a shoelace when the aglet, or, as you prefer, the laceskwunch, frays. The shoelace can then be said, at least by this fellow, to have "thriffled", and I for one am not about to dispute him.

I thought the thing was already done!! As far as I remember, the "cylindrical device" is called an "aglet". How come I know it?? It used to be a favourite of quizmasters back home in India, when they wanted to stump everyone with something everyone thought they "simply ought to have known"!!!

Topic:	5) Shoe lace tip!! (2 of 2), Read 39 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Irving Snodgrass ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, December 03, 1998 12:39 PM

The word is indeed "aglet." I first discovered this word in the "Book of Lists" 20 years ago, and for some reason it stuck in my brain. A look at a few dictionaries confirms it as well.

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Topic:	5) Shoe lace tip!! (1 of 2), Read 38 times
Conf:	Word Fugitives, with Barbara Wallraff
From:	Kiran N.S. ([email protected])
Date:	Thursday, December 03, 1998 10:38 AM