Story Behind the Turkish Idiom “Pabucu Dama Atılmak”

Pabucu Dama Atılmak  – Shoe to be thrown to the roof ” to lose favor; to fall from popular esteem; to seem less appealing; to look pale by comparison”…..

The story behind the idiom “Pabucu Dama Atilmak” – to throw someones shoe on the roof is…

At the time of the Ottoman, the organisation the artisans and craftsmen belonged to would regulate trade along with social life. They had come up with an interesting method to try to prevent defective goods, cheap production (with intention of less material, more profit), and bad quality work.

Let’s say you bought a shoe and had it fixed, but it was flawed. The committee would listen to both sides of the story- the plaintiff (customer) and the craftsman. If the plaintiff’s complaint was found to be legitimate, the cost of the shoe would be paid back to him and the shoe itself would be thrown on the roof of the shoemaker as a warning or deterrent to others.

This way, passer-by’s and future customers would know who is a good shoemaker and who isn’t just by looking at their rooftops. The shoemakers whose shoes are thrown to the roof would thereby lose out on financial earnings, and lose potential customers thus it would be as if HIS “shoe was thrown on the roof”.