These flowers aren’t periwinkles, but their color is about the right hue. — Art by Pat Bean
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the one who’ll decide where to go.” — Dr. Seuss
The Word Stumped Me
I was reading Eric Brown’s Murder Takes a Turn, which is set in England shortly after the end of World War II, when I came across the word winklepickers. I love British mysteries set in this era, before DNA and other scientific methods changed the tone of modern-day crime solving; and I love reading books that teach me something and introduce me to new words.
They call these shoes Winklepickers. But they’re more of a cobalt blue than periwinkle blue, don’t you think?
Wunklepickers was one of these, and stopped me in my reading tracks. My Kindle was on the table beside me, so I used it to look up a definition of the word, and discovered that it is a boot or shoe with a pointed toe that became popular with British rock and roll fans in the 1950s.
The name is related to periwinkle snails, which I had also never heard of, but which are a popular snack across the ocean. The only periwinkle I’m familiar with is a five-petaled flower that is mostly purple or blue. Periwinkle is also a watercolor hue that I sometimes use.
The shoe moniker, however, refers to the sharp-pointed object that is needed by snail eaters to extract the soft snail flesh from the shell.
But then perhaps you already knew this. I asked my friend Jean this morning, when she dropped off her canine friend Dusty for me to watch while she went to work, if she had heard of winklepickers. She immediately thought of the snails, but then she’s a chef and spent many years working in Europe.
Stores are still selling winklepickers today, I discovered when I went online to research the word – but I think I’ll stick to my tennies. I’m sure they are way more comfortable.
Now available on Amazon
Bean Pat: A fall walk https://pinolaphoto.com/2018/10/26/a-fall-walk-through-the-miami-whitewater-forest/?wref=pil Enjoy. I did.
Pat Bean is a Lonely Planet Community Pathfinder. Her book, Travels with Maggie, is now up on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/y8z7553y Currently, she is writing a book, she is calling Bird Droppings, which is about her late-bloomer birding adventures. You can contact her at patbean@msn.com
Pat Bean's blog 
Your painting is lovely. Beautiful shades of blue.
Thanks photoink
I love the word! What a funny word! And that’s lovely painting and those shoes are very cool what a wonderful color blue😀
Well, I just bought a pair of shoes that have that same shape but are in a tapestry type fabric. I have just named them! Great word.
What a great word. We have periwinkles here on the Eastern Shore — the flowers (invasive, I’m told) and the snails (indigenous). The snails hang out on the marsh grasses and it’s sometimes difficult to walk on the beach near the grasses without stepping on one. (To be honest, I don’t like killing anything so I don’t walk on the beach when it’s heavy with periwinkles making their way towards the grasses.)
Always an education
Great word to use instead of a cuss. No one here will know what it is, and it’s about as offensive as “horsefeathers”! And besides, by the time you slow your brain down enough to use it and say it properly, you’d probably calm down enough that you didn’t need to cuss anyway 🙂
Winklepickers! I love it when I learn a new word! 🙂 And what a great quote from Dr. Seuss – a lot of wisdom there.