# Field shoes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 25, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136 "2016-02-25T20:54:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/1 "2016-02-25T20:54:49Z")
Tovah Feldshuh’s name came up in Cafe Society. I have this ‘thing’ about translating names. For example, ‘Messerschmidt’ in English would be ‘Cutler’. So when I saw ‘Feldshuh’, I immediately thought ‘field shoe’. Given that the surname is probably older than Addidas and Puma and Nike, I’m guessing a field shoe is a shoe worn in the fields. But farmers would probably wear boots, right? And if people had proper shoes, they wouldn’t be out in the fields with them? Were field shoes a type of footwear that were not boots? Perhaps shoes with hobnails? Or were they something the gentry would wear on a hunt? (I always picture tall boots for that, too.) So what’s a ‘field shoe’? How did ‘Field Shoe’ become a surname? ---
**Author:** ![quiltguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e47774/32.png) [@quiltguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/quiltguy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/2 "2016-02-25T22:34:48Z")
Perhaps they are wooden shoes, as Dutch peasants used to use(or might still) when farming in muddy fields? ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/3 "2016-02-25T23:20:11Z")
Who is he? or she? Jewish, or Israeli, or of Hebrew ancestry? “Tovah” is Hebrew ( טוֹבָה ) for “good”, feminine singular. According to [this](http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Tovah), it might also be of Old Norse or Swedish derivation. > [@](#): > > Tovah /to-vah/ as a girls’ name is of Hebrew derivation, and the meaning of the name Tovah is “God is good; beautiful Thor; good”. Tovah is an alternate spelling of Toby (Hebrew) with the suffix -vah. Tovah is also a variation of Tova (Old Norse, Hebrew): as a Swedish name. (Not sure where they got all those extra connotations in the translations shown here. In Hebrew, AFAIK, it just means “good”.) ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/4 "2016-02-25T23:22:16Z")
From German Wikipedia: [Feldschuh](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldschuh). Apparently means “army boot”. I imagine it’s originally a soldier’s (taken) surname. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/5 "2016-02-25T23:45:21Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > “Tovah” is Hebrew ( טוֹבָה ) for “good”, feminine singular. > [@Ignotus](#): > > Apparently means “army boot”. I imagine it’s originally a soldier’s (taken) surname. So her name means ‘Good Army Boots’? 😛 Thanks for the German link. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2016, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/6 "2016-02-25T23:50:02Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > So her name means ‘Good Army Boots’? 😛 > > Thanks for the German link. Yo mamma [del]wears[/del] is combat boots! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/7 "2016-02-26T02:29:27Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > From German Wikipedia: [Feldschuh](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feldschuh). > > Apparently means “army boot”. I imagine it’s originally a soldier’s (taken) surname. Who the hell would take the name, “Army boot”? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/8 "2016-02-26T05:51:21Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Who the hell would take the name, “Army boot”? :dubious: Caligula did. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/9 "2016-02-26T06:01:31Z")
I believe such things were quite common in the ol’ days of the 30-year war, and even much later. Remember, most people didn’t _have_ a surname back then (they were known as “Johann, son of the miller in Ratzberg” or "Johann, he who lives next to the church "). So, when they entered the military service, the officers simply gave them some short and concise name, often related to military paraphernalia, to discern them from oneanother. And, as they got used to them, they tended to keep them even after discharge. And a lot of them didn’t speak German, at least not as their mother tongue. To a Czech or Polish conscript, the word “Feldschuh” wouldn’t have sounded stranger than any random assembly of syllables. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/10 "2016-02-26T07:24:58Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > But farmers would probably wear boots, right? I think you’ll find the shoe/boot distinction isn’t as clear-cut as you seem to assume. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/11 "2016-02-26T07:47:31Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I think you’ll find the shoe/boot distinction isn’t as clear-cut as you seem to assume. This. Until relatively modern times, _boot_ referred specifically to footwear used by riders - to say that someone was “booted” or “booted up” was to say that he was prepared for a journey - so the shoe/boot distinction revolved around not so much what each looked like, but what each was for. In a military context, cavalry troops would have worn boots, but infantry troops would have worn shoes. But the same distinction wouldn’t necessarily hold good in German/Yiddish. So _Feldschuh/Feldshuh_ doesn’t necessary refer to a field _shoe_ as particularly distinguished from a _boot_. We should remember that the German word _handschuh_ means a glove, so the ultimate root of the word _shoe_ could be some Germanic word meaning something like covering, protection. So _Feldschuh_ probably means something like footwear intended for use in, or actually used in, the field. And that could be the field in either the agricultural or military sense. The first person to bear the surname may, as speculated above, have had it assigned to him on enlistment in some army. Or, he may have been so called because, in distinction from even poorer neighbours, he owned and used a pair of _feldschuhe_. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/12 "2016-02-26T12:10:34Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Caligula did. I thought it was “Little Boots”. But anyway, you see how he turned out. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/13 "2016-02-26T12:37:16Z")
As a side note: the Swedish surname [_Fältskog_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnetha_F%C3%A4ltskog) has always seemed strange to me. What, in God’s name, is a field-forest? Now I get it! It’s a simple mistranslation (or mistranscription) of _Feldschuh_! ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/field-shoes/747136/14 "2016-02-26T14:17:12Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > I think you’ll find the shoe/boot distinction isn’t as clear-cut as you seem to assume. > [@UDS](#): > > So _Feldschuh_ probably means something like footwear intended for use in, or actually used in, the field. That was the distinction I was trying to make.