boot

English has two words spelled boot: the footwear, from Old French, and an old word meaning advantage or profit, inherited from Old English, which survives in to boot.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /buːt/ (UK); /but/ (US)^[4]

boot¹ footwear; to kick; to start a computer

Etymology

It is Middle English bote, borrowed from Old French bote (modern French botte),^[1][2][5] corresponding to Occitan, Spanish and Portuguese bota, of unknown origin, perhaps Germanic.^[1][2] SOED gives Old Norse bóti as an alternative source and connects the French word with bot, blunt, stumpy, and so with butt.^[6] In computing, the verb is short for bootstrap.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A covering for the foot and lower leg, originally a riding boot: about 1300, in King Horn, in Barnhart, about 1325 in the OED.^[1][7][2]

Semantic evolution

Leg armour is from 1388,^[7] and an instrument of torture used in Scotland from the 16th century.^[7] A step outside a coach (about 1600) was extended to an outside luggage compartment (1781) and in Britain to the luggage space of a car.^[2] The verb, to put on boots, is from 1468;^[1][7] to kick, American, from 1877, and to eject from 1880,^[7][1] with give someone the boot from 1888.^[7] A recruit at boot camp is from 1915.^[7] In computing, to load an operating system into a computer is from 1980, from the image of a program pulling itself up by its bootstraps.^[7][2]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – a riding boot.^[1]
• 1468 – to put boots on.^[1][7]
• 1781 – a luggage compartment on a coach.^[2]
• 1877 – to kick.^[7]
• 1888 – give someone the boot.^[7]
• 1980 – to start a computer.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A sturdy item of footwear covering the foot and ankle and sometimes the lower leg.
2. (British) The luggage compartment of a car; a trunk.
3. (informal) A kick.
4. (the boot) Dismissal from a job.

Verb

1. To kick.
2. (boot out) To force to leave; to dismiss.
3. (computing) To start a computer by loading its operating system.

boot² advantage, profit

Etymology

It is Middle English bote, inherited from Old English bōt (“help, remedy; atonement, compensation”), literally a making better,^[1][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *bōtō,^[3][2] related to better and best,^[3] with cognates in Old Frisian bote, German Buße (“penance, atonement”) and Gothic 𐌱𐍉𐍄𐌰 (bōta, “advantage”).^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To boot, in addition, into the bargain: about 1000 in the OED, before 1000 in Barnhart.^[7][1]

Semantic evolution

Advantage, profit or use, chiefly in negative questions such as what boot?, is from before 1300.^[7] A medical remedy is an Old English sense now obsolete,^[7] and relief or remedy is in the Peterborough Chronicle (1131).^[1] Something thrown in by one side to a bargain is from 1483.^[7][2] The verb, to avail, as in it boots not, is from about 1400.^[7] The word is now archaic except in to boot.^[1][3]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – to boot.^[7]
• 1131 – relief, remedy.^[1]
• before 1300 – advantage, use.^[7]
• c. 1400 – to avail (verb).^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (to boot) As well; in addition.
2. (archaic) Advantage or profit.

Verb

1. (archaic) To be of use to; to avail.

Word family

• bootless

Related words

• bootstrap
• bootleg
• better
• booty

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press