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Galoshes (from french galoches), also known as boat shoes, dickersons, or overshoes, are a type of rubber boot that is slipped over shoes  to keep them from getting muddy or wet. The word galoshes might be used interchangeably with boot, especially a rubberized boot. Properly speaking, however, galoshes are synonymous with rain boots often reaching heights just below the knee.

The term may trace back to the middle ages from the Gaulish shoe or gallicae. This shoe had a leather upper and a sole carved of wood. When the Romans conquered France, they borrowed the Gaulish boot style. Nobles would wear a red leather boot with ornately carved wooden soles to display their station.

The term originally referred to wooden shoes or patten, or merely a wooden sole fastened to the foot by a strap or cord. Pattens were overshoes with tall, shaped wooden bases and mules or slippers into which one could slip their indoor shoes. In this respect, they could be considered similar to galoshes.

In Turkey the word refers to a polythene overshoe that is worn temporarily when visiting homes or offices, to protect the floors against dirt from the outside.

"Goloshes" appears to be the older spelling of galoshes used previously in Great Britain. The spelling perhaps changed around 1920 to the present-day spelling

In modern usage, galoshes are outer shoes worn in inclement weather to protect the inner shoes and keep the feet dry. Galoshes are now almost universally made of rubber. In the bootmakers' trade, a "galosh" is the piece of leather, of a make stronger than, or different from that of the "uppers", which runs around the bottom part of a boot or shoe, just above the sole.

A more modern term for galoshes is rubber boots. Overshoes have evolved in the past decades and now are being made with more advanced features, such as high traction outsoles.

The transition from a traditional wooden sole to one of vulcanized rubber may be attributed to Charles Goodyear. The qualities of rubber,  though fascinating to Goodyear, were highly dependent on temperature: it was tacky when hot, brittle when cold. Rubber tempered its properties so that it was easily molded, durable, and tough. A rubberized elastic webbing made Goodyear's galoshes (circa 1890) easy to pull on and off.

An unconfirmed legend states that an Englishman named Radley invented galoshes. He suffered from illness and wanted to keep his feet dry. While reading he noticed a description of protective cloth overshoes "gallicae" and decided to capitalize on the idea. He patented cloth overshoes reinforced with rubber to keep the feet dry.

There are also records of a black inventor by the name of Alvin Rico who received a patent for an overshoe in 1898.

There are two basic types. One is like an oversize shoe or low boot made of thick rubber with a heavy sole and instep, designed for heavy-duty use. The other one is of much thinner, more flexible material, more like a rubber slipper, designed solely for protection against the wet rather than for extensive walking.

In Russia, galoshes have been an indispensable attribute of yalenki.

In the upper U.S. Midwest, school children know the black rubber, over-the-shoe boot as "four-buckle arctics".

In Quebec they are called "claques". They were also used by the public, in the Ligue Nationale d'Improvisation to indicate discontent.

Galoshes are also in use in Canadian delivery rooms, where splashes may occur and damage shoes of medical students and hospital personnel.

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