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
- A sturdy item of footwear covering the foot and ankle and sometimes the lower leg.
- (British) The luggage compartment of a car; a trunk.
- (informal) A kick.
- (the boot) Dismissal from a job.
Verb
- To kick.
- (boot out) To force to leave; to dismiss.
- (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
- (to boot) As well; in addition.
- (archaic) Advantage or profit.
Verb
- (archaic) To be of use to; to avail.
Word family
- bootless
Related words
- bootstrap
- bootleg
- better
- booty
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
- ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ 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