The “stiletto” heel takes its name from the stiletto dagger, a slender weapon designed primarily for thrusting.
A stiletto is a narrow-bladed dagger with a sharply pointed tip and little emphasis on cutting edges. Its name became a useful metaphor for the thin, needle-like profile of the modern high heel. The comparison is about shape and pointed slenderness, not because the footwear was designed as a weapon.
The stiletto heel emerged in the mid-20th century as shoemakers began using stronger internal supports, especially metal shafts, inside the heel. Earlier high heels generally needed thicker wooden structures for stability. Italian designer Salvatore Ferragamo helped advance the technology with his steel-supported heel designs, while French designer Roger Vivier is widely associated with popularizing the modern sharply tapered form for Christian Dior in the 1950s.
Stiletto heels can vary greatly in height, but their defining feature is a long, narrow heel. Shorter versions are often called kitten heels. The related weapon term is also distinct from a sword, spear, or arrow: a stiletto is specifically a type of dagger.