plimsoll [L19th] Use of plimsoll for a light rubber-soled canvas shoe, is probably because the strip covering the join between sole and upper resembles a Plimsoll line on the side of the ship, marking the safe limit for loading. This got its name from Samuel Plimsoll (1824–98), the English politician who fought to introduce the Merchant Shipping Act of 1876, which ended the practice of sending overloaded and heavily insured old ships to sea, from which the owners profited if they sank.