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Discuss Email this Feedback RSS/XML Permalink A.Word.A.Day--goody two-shoes This week's theme: words related to shoes. goody two-shoes (GOOD-ee TOO-shooz) noun A smugly virtuous person. [After the title character in The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes, a children's book believed to have been written by Oliver Goldsmith.] In this moralistic nursery tale, Margery is an orphan who has only one shoe. One day, when she gets the full pair, she runs about shouting, "Two shoes!" Eventually she becomes rich and educated through her virtue and hard work. The word goody was a polite term of address for a woman of humble social status. It's a contraction of the word goodwife and was formerly used as a title in a manner similar to the current Mrs. -Anu Garg (garg AT wordsmith.org) "Before anybody else, Falk realized this: 'In the age of TV sports, if you were to create a media athlete and star for the '90s -- spectacular talent, midsized, well-spoken, attractive, accessible, old-time values, wholesome, clean, natural, not too Goody Two-shoes, with a little bit of deviltry in him -- you'd invent Michael." Curry Kirkpatrick; In an Orbit All His; Sports Illustrated; Nov 9, 1987. X-Bonus Count no day lost in which you waited your turn, took only your share and sought advantage over no one. -Robert Brault, software developer, writer (1973- )

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