The stiletto heel is named after a dagger
The stiletto is named after a knife. The slim, blade-thin heel takes its name from the Italian stiletto dagger, and it became possible once a steel rod could be run through the heel to take the weight. It sharpened to its point in the 1950s. Roger Vivier cut a steel-cored version for Dior in 1954, and the dagger walked into the wardrobe.