plimsoll

See also: Plimsoll

English

Alternative forms

• plimsol, plimsole

Etymology

From Samuel Plimsoll, a Bristol merchant.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈplɪmsoʊl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

plimsoll (plural plimsolls)

1. (British) A rubber-soled lace-up canvas shoe for sports or onboard ships; a precursor of trainers.
   • 1928, Lawrence R. Bourne, chapter 13, in Well Tackled!‎^[1]:

     “Yes, there are two distinct sets of footprints, both wearing rubber shoes—one I think ordinary plimsolls, the other goloshes,” replied the sergeant.

   • 2022, Ian McEwan, Lessons, page 8:

     While here, now, a large boy, a famous bully, swaggered to the front to bend, leering, and offer his satirical backside to be ineffectually beaten with a plimsoll by the gentle Scot.

2. The plimsoll symbol ⦵ (or o) that is used as a superscript in the notation of thermodynamics to indicate an arbitrarily chosen non-zero reference point.

Synonyms

• dap (Britain, regional), pump (Britain, regional)
• sandshoe (Australia)

Related terms

• Plimsoll line, Plimsoll mark

Translations

early sports shoes

• Bulgarian: гуменки (bg) f pl (gumenki)
• Czech: teniska (cs) f
• Finnish: tennari (fi) (low cut); koripallokenkä (over ankle)
• Greek: πάνινα παπούτσια n pl (pánina papoútsia)
• Polish: trampek (pl) m