OLD SHOE

PRONUNCIATION: (old shoo)

MEANING: noun: Something or someone comfortably familiar, especially in an unpretentious manner.

ETYMOLOGY: Alluding to the familiar comfort of an old pair of shoes. Earliest documented use: 1386.

NOTES: The idiom “old shoe” has traveled around the block in the English language a few times. In the beginning it meant something worthless. Then there was this superstition of throwing shoes after a person leaving on a trip. This developed into the idiom old shoe meaning good luck. Finally, there’s something to be said about the comfort of stepping into an old pair of shoes (compared to breaking in a new pair) that resulted in the current meaning of the term
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OLD SHMOE - an elderly bumbler

OLD SHOW - The $64,000 Question, say

OLDISH O.E. - I found a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary from the 1950s!