Round-Heeled Woman

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, hi.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Everett Allen.

Where are you calling from, Everett?

I’m calling from Crescent City, California.

Oh, welcome to the program.

Oh, good to be here.

What do you have on your mind?

Well, I had a question. The question actually has evolved over a year, and it has to do with the term round-heeled woman.

Okay.

And the way this came about, my significant other, or spousal equivalent, as I call her, asked me a question because there was a person who came to her work site who was a temporary worker who, after she’d been there for a while, someone put on her locker a note saying, calling her a round-heeled woman. Nobody there seemed to know what that meant.

And so my friend called me and asked me if I knew what it meant. I said, no, I don’t know what it means. The woman left it there for the whole time she worked there, which was a few months. And amazingly enough, none of the women there who are smart-learned women knew anything about what that meant at least at that point in time.

Then this past February, a play showed up in San Francisco called Around the Hilled Woman. And so my friend asked me again if I knew anything about it. So by that time, we determined that there may be a particular connotation to that word. What she said was that it was supposedly, quote, a woman with loose morals, or, you know, someone who goes from horizontal to vertical very easily. Or from vertical to horizontal. Or the other way, yeah.

So, and then we found out that there was a book written, and the play was based on the book, and Sharon Gless was starring in the play.

Oh, really?

And the play was having its premiere there in San Francisco just past February. So Round Hood Woman is, as far as you know, a woman of loose morals.

Well, that was the way it was described to me. I mean, I sort of know that now.

Yeah, and so what happened in the workplace? Did they take down the sign?

No, the woman was there for about four months. She left it on her locker.

Okay.

And she didn’t care what it meant.

Wow.

But the rest of the staff was curious as to who put it up there. And why did they put it on her locker? Was she a boxer?

No.

No, okay.

Okay, well that rules out one possibility, doesn’t it?

Yeah, I thought maybe she knew and didn’t take offense because she was thinking of another meaning of round heel.

-huh.

Yeah, because you’re right. I mean, a round-heeled person is somebody whose heels are so rounded that they rock back really easily. They are literally a pushover.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh my goodness. Somebody that a bearer of Y chromosomes would love to hook up with, huh?

Right, right.

An easy woman, a woman of easy virtue, who with the slightest provocation is willing to go horizontal. And there’s a famous expression from a slang dictionary from 1796 where they talk about a woman named a thorough, good-natured wench. The term is thorough, good-natured wench. And it’s defined as one who being asked to sit down will lie down. That is a round-heeled woman.

Timber!

That is a term from a long time ago.

Yeah, a willing wench.

Well, round-heeled is a newer version of it. It dates from about the 1920s. And it’s used in boxing as well to refer to a boxer who goes down really easily.

Yeah, it’s a round-heeled or glass jaunt.

That’s right, yeah.

Well, I feel enlightened.

Oh, well, glad to do the lightning.

Well, I appreciate that.

Thanks for calling, Everett. It’s been a pleasure. Thank you.

Good talking with you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, whether you’re glass-jawed or round-heeled, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.