Or maybe it means this (which comes from World Wide Words):
"Well-heeled never had anything to do with people being well shod
(so it has no link with down at heel). The original expression
came from cock-fighting, and meant to provide one?s bird with
good, sharp spurs (considered, it would seem, as a kind of
artificial heel) that would inflict the most damage. It was taken
over into American usage in frontier days to mean that one was
likewise carrying a weapon, but in the more modern sense of a gun
(the first recorded use is from a story of Mark Twain?s dated
1866). Only later did it transfer its meaning to being armed with
a more powerful weapon still: money."
Walt
_____________________________________________________________
"Patriotism means being loyal to your country all the time
and to its government when it deserves it." -- Mark Twain
---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 21:03:48 -0700
>Well, live and learn! And I thought it meant wearing cowboy boots
>or other shoes with higher than normal heels. Gawrsh! :-)
>
>Winsor Crosby wrote:
>
>> James N. McBride wrote:
>>
>>>It's such a slangy place........you may need to explain
>>>what "well heeled" means. This could go on forever.... /jim
>>
>>Sorry. It means having enough money so that it is not a worry.
>>I think it comes from the idea that before people just threw
>>their old shoes away they would repair them. A person with
>>money always had new heels on his shoes and someone on a tighter
>>budget just wore their shoes with the heels worn over.
>
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