Originally a "stiletto" was a weapon, fashioned in the 1400's, which is a knife or dagger with a long slender blade and needle-like point.

Named after this, the stiletto heel is a womans shoe with a long thin heel, first named this way in 1930. A real stiletto heel has a stem of solid steel or alloy. The more usual method of mass-producing high shoe heels, i.e. moulded plastic with an internal metal tube for reinforcement, does not achieve the true stiletto shape.