white-shoe

English

Etymology

For the noun, from their traditional footwear. For the adjective, from the preponderance of Ivy League graduates hired by such firms.

Pronunciation

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Noun

white-shoe (plural white-shoes)

1. (US, slang) A stereotypical male Ivy League college student.

Adjective

white-shoe (comparative more white-shoe, superlative most white-shoe)

1. (US, slang) Effeminate or immature.
2. (US, slang) Establishment; pertaining to mainstream US social power-structures.
   • 2007, Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, published 2008, page 26:

     Dulles had been a junior diplomat after World War I and a white-shoe Wall Street lawyer in the Depression.

   • 2017 September 19, Jennifer Szalai, “The Education of Ellen Pao”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     In “Reset: My Fight for Inclusion and Lasting Change,” Ellen K. Pao traces a journey of disillusionment that culminated in the lawsuit she brought against her employer, the white-shoe venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, for gender discrimination.

Derived terms

• white-shoe firm