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Idiom Meaning: If the shoe fits, wear it means that if a negative or insulting description or criticism applies to you, you should accept it; more rarely, if any description applies to you, accept it. Idiom Origin: If the shoe fits, wear it is a later American version of the much earlier English idiom ‘if the cap fits, wear it,’ dating from the early 1700s. This idiom originally referred to a fool’s cap. A fool’s cap (foolscap) was a brightly colored cap or hood which usually had several dropping peaks from which bells hung. This cap was worn by a court jester or ‘fool.’ The idiom, then, alludes to one accepting that they are a fool. It is believed that the more current and common ‘shoe’ version was influenced by the Cinderella story in which the prince found Cinderella by confirming that the glass slipper she had left behind fit her foot.
