Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Diane Houston Floyd.
I’m calling from Dallas, Texas.
Diane, what can we do for you today?
Well, I was calling because I was interested in understanding where the word gumshoe came from.
I was watching a rerun of a television show, and one character turned to another character in the show and said, “Great, you’ve hired yourself a gumshoe.”
Oh, yeah. That’s an old-fashioned word.
-huh. Was this some kind of mystery or detective story?
Yes. The characters were thrown back in time to this kind of film scene where they were charged with finding a missing person.
I see. Okay. And so they hired a gumshoe to help.
Huh? Yes. And you figured that a gumshoe is probably some kind of detective or something like that.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. It’s not somebody who has gum on their shoe.
Well, kind of. Well, not chewing gum on their shoe.
Right. Let me put it that way, which is what I thought when I was a little kid. I thought a gumshoe was kind of a loser, you know, somebody who stepped on gum on the sidewalk and had gum sticking on their shoe.
Gum shoe comes from the fact that shoes are sometimes made with gum rubber. And gum rubber is from a rubber tree. And if you have a shoe that has a gum sole, then it’s going to be a very soft sole and you’re going to be very, very quiet when you’re tiptoeing around. And so a gumshoe is a detective who can sneak up on you or eavesdrop on you because they’re wearing shoes that don’t make any noise.
Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. Compared to what came before that, before there were rubber-soled shoes, I mean, we’re talking wooden soles or leather soles, which are louder. You’re just going to hear a lot more noise. The term gumshoe has been around since around the turn of the 20th century.
And what’s interesting is that it’s also been applied to not just detectives or police officers, but prowlers and thieves. But most often, I think you hear it in connection with those detective novels. And it’s one of those kinds of terms that you’ll hear and read when you’re in that genre.
Yeah, about 100 years ago, you could read newspapers where they talk, though, about politics and politicians and their gumshoe methods and their gumshoe campaigns to try to get their way, to try to get voters on their side or try to get a bill in Congress to happen.
Okay, okay. Well, that’s interesting. Diane, thank you so much for calling. Really appreciate it.
Thank you for having me and answering my questions. You all have a great day.
Thank you. You too. Take care now.
Bye-bye. Be well.
Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.
Definitely one of those old-fashioned words you don’t hear anymore. I wonder if detectives today still call themselves gumshoes.
Like, is it something that you would say jokingly about yourself if you were a police detective?
That’s a really good question. I think when I think about people in that profession, I usually hear them say private investigator.
Okay, private investigator. You don’t hear private I that much.
No. Remember that?
Yeah, private I or P.I. Well, if you’ve got any listening, let us know. Do you call yourself a gumshoe even in just 877-929-9673?
