Close-Toed vs. Closed-Toe vs. Close-Toe Shoes

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is Chris calling from Missouri.

I’ve worked in the outdoor experiential field, outdoor leadership, and I was reminded recently of this ongoing debate we’ve had.

Often when trying to inform participants about safety matters, we always want them to be wearing safe footwear.

So this question comes up about closed-toed shoes, or is it closed-toed shoes?

And it’s one of these things that I don’t think anybody I’ve met feels like they have a right answer.

We’ve Googled and searched and you see all sorts of different answers.

But all the professionals I’ve worked with have their own clear professional opinion, but it keeps coming up anytime you have to put it on a website or put it in an email to people or put it on a document.

It always sparks the debate again.

And I’ve always been curious if there is a more proper way to describe that.

So just to clarify, because it can be hard to hear in audio, but we’re talking about closed-toe shoes.

So the D is on close.

Or we’re talking about closed-toed shoes, where the D is on toed.

Correct.

And I’ve usually seen, in either case, I’ve usually seen it hyphenated.

Yeah.

Clearly, you know, kind of that two-word adjective, if you will.

But we’ve just wrangled about this for years.

Yeah, Ken in San Diego wrote us about this a while back, and he said he sees four variations where people might put the D on clothes or toad.

So either, you know, one of them gets it or both of them get it or none of them get it.

And which one do you vote for?

I usually am on the clothes, toad shoes side of the argument, the D on the toe.

Oh, interesting.

And I don’t have any good justification for that.

It just feels more correct to me.

Yeah, closed toe is the most common version of this.

C-L-O-S-E-D hyphen toe.

And you’ll find that in style guides, like the Associated Press style guide prefers that version.

Martha and Chris, I’m looking in my inbox, and so I have a ton of personal email.

And so in various newsletters about things like canyon hikes or advice for school field trips, both of those versions are used.

And these are clearly edited pieces by careful writers.

Well, and that’s why it just seems to consistently come up.

Anytime we go to print or any group or any program I’ve been a part of, somebody always articulates the question.

Everybody has an opinion and no definitive answer.

And then we just pick one and go with it.

Well, that’s probably a good way to do it if you’re just being consistent.

So nobody says close toe, correct?

C-L-O-S-E hyphen toe?

I’ve not heard it without any D.

Yeah.

Nor have I found many folks who prefer a D on both.

So it’s usually a debate on where the D goes.

The argument is sometimes made that closed-toed with the D on the toe is a compound adjective.

But that only works if we’re saying close-toed and not close-toed.

But, you know, Martha, we have other examples.

We have closed-door meetings.

We have closed-circuit television.

We are closed-mouthed if we don’t speak.

Yeah, that’s a good point.

Of course, closed circuit television is a little bit of an exception because there’s the same debate about that.

Some people leave the D off of closed and say close circuit television as if it’s about the camera zooming in on a specific spot.

But it isn’t why it’s called that.

It’s called that because it’s not broadcast.

It’s private.

So it’s a closed circuit, meaning nobody else can see it except those who are meant to.

Now, one other interesting thing about this is that closed toe or closed toad comes much later than open toad.

I found that really interesting that, you know, if you’re talking about open toad shoes, there were references to open toad shoes back in the 1880s.

And you don’t see it a whole lot, but then in the 1930s when sandals became more popular and women started using the little luxury of toenail polish, you heard more about open-toed and closed-toed.

And that’s good to bring up, Martha, because the opposite of open isn’t close, and it isn’t close.

It’s closed with a D.

And that’s what we’re talking about here is opposites.

Well, thank you.

I appreciate the insights on this.

Yeah, sure. Thanks for sharing. Take care.

Thanks for sharing. Keep those toes safe.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

And if you want to talk about language with us, if you want to stick your toe in the water, call us 877-929-9673 or send those questions in email to words@waywordradio.org.