stiletto

See also: stilettò

English

A stiletto (Italy, 17th century)

A pair of stilettoes

Triple portrait of King Charles I of England with a stiletto beard

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian stiletto. Doublet of stylet.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /stɪˈlɛtoʊ/, [stɪˈlɛɾoʊ]
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /stɪˈlɛtəʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

stiletto (plural stilettos or stilettoes or stiletti)

1. A small, slender knife or dagger-like weapon intended for stabbing.
   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tremarn Case”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC, section 1; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     There the cause of death was soon ascertained; the victim of this daring outrage had been stabbed to death from ear to ear with a long, sharp instrument, in shape like an antique stiletto, which, I may tell you, was subsequently found under the cushions of the hansom.

2. A rapier.
3. An awl.
4. A woman's shoe with a tall, slender heel (called a stiletto heel).
5. (obsolete, historical) A beard trimmed into a pointed form. [16th–17th c.]

   Synonyms: bodkin beard, pique-devant

   • c. 1635–1636 (date written), Iohn Ford [i.e., John Ford], The Fancies, Chast and Noble: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] P[urslowe] for Henry Seile, […], published 1638, →OCLC, Act III, page 32:

     The very quaik of faſhions, the very hee that / VVeares a Steletto on his chinne.

Derived terms

• stiletto fly
• stiletto heel
• stiletto snake

Translations

stabbing weapon

• Arabic: خُنَيْجِر m (ḵunayjir)
• Belarusian: штыле́т m (štyljét)
• Bulgarian: малка кама f (malka kama), стилет m (stilet)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 短劍／短剑 (zh) (duǎnjiàn)

• Dutch: stiletto (nl) m
• Esperanto: stileto
• Finnish: stiletti (fi)
• French: stylet (fr) m
• German: Stilett (de) n, Dolchmesser n
• Ido: stileto (io)
• Italian: stiletto (it) m
• Japanese: 短剣 (ja) (たんけん, tanken), 小剣 (しょうけん, shōken), スティレット (sutiretto)
• Korean: 단검(短劍) (ko) (dan'geom), 스틸레토 (seutilleto)
• Lithuanian: stiletas m
• Polish: sztylet (pl) m
• Portuguese: estilete (pt) m
• Romanian: stilet (ro) n
• Russian: стиле́т (ru) m (stilét), ко́ртик (ru) m (kórtik) (dirk), кинжа́л (ru) m (kinžál) (dagger)
• Spanish: estilete (es) m
• Swedish: stilett (sv) c
• Ukrainian: стиле́т m (stylét)

rapier — see rapier

awl — see awl

woman's shoe with a tall, slender heel

• Belarusian: шпі́лька f (špílʹka)
• Bulgarian: високи токчета (visoki tokčeta)
• Finnish: piikkikorkokenkä
• French: talon aiguille (fr) m (by ellipsis)
• German: Stöckelschuh (de) m, Stiletto (de) m
• Italian: tacco (it) m (by ellipsis)
• Macedonian: шти́кла f (štíkla)
• Polish: szpilka (pl) f
• Russian: шпи́лька (ru) f (špílʹka)
• Spanish: zapato de tacón de aguja m
• Swedish: stilettklack (sv) c
• Turkish: stiletto
• Ukrainian: шпи́лька f (špýlʹka)

Verb

stiletto (third-person singular simple present stilettos, present participle stilettoing, simple past and past participle stilettoed)

1. (transitive) To attack or kill with a stiletto (dagger).
   • 1834, Henry Tudor, Narrative of a Tour in North America:

     The recollection of former atrocities by the populace in plundering the city and stilettoing the inhabitants, is sufficiently fresh in the remembrance of the government to serve as an additional stimulus to prevent similar disorders.

Dutch

Etymology

From Italian stiletto.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

stiletto f (plural stiletto's, diminutive stilettootje n or stilettoke n)

1. stiletto

Synonyms

• hoge hakken (both for shoe and heel itself)

Italian

Etymology 1

From stilo (“needle, stylus”) +‎ -etto.

Noun

stiletto m (plural stiletti)

1. (weaponry) stiletto, dagger

Derived terms

• stilettata

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

stiletto

1. first-person singular present indicative of stilettare

Spanish

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Italian stiletto.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /estiˈleto/ [es.t̪iˈle.t̪o]
• Rhymes: -eto

Noun

stiletto m (plural stilettos)

1. stiletto

Usage notes

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.