Entry revised for OED Online

stiletto, n.

DRAFT REVISION July 2007

2. b. Short for stiletto heel n. at Compounds 3.

1953 Newark (Ohio) Advocate 19 Mar. 8 (advt.) The Italian idea in fashion... Florentine stilettos... The slender fabric shoe, poised on a slim dagger of a heel.

1959 New Statesman 10 Oct. 464/3 She came..smooching forward, her walk made lopsided by the absence of one heel of the stilettos. 1967 O. WYND Walk Softly, Men Praying ii. 13 She wobbled slightly on worn-over stilettos.

5. attrib. and Comb., stiletto heel n., a very narrow, high heel on women's shoes, fashionable esp. in the 1950s; a shoe with such a heel.

1931 Vidette-Messenger (Valparaiso, Indiana) 20 Apr. 5/1 A shaved, modern *stiletto heel appears on trimmed opera pumps for tailored clothes.
1952 Independent-Press-Telegram (Long Beach, Calif.) 7 Sept. A5 (advt.) The new  'stiletto' heel Vogue raves about.

1981 M. HARDWICK Chinese Detective ix. 73 She was in black slip and stockings and four-inch stiletto heels.