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bootleg

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Etymology and origin of the English word bootleg

Confidence
Established
Formation
Compound
First attested
1575 Elizabethan churchwardens' accounts
Ultimate origins
Old French boteOld Norse leggr
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
English boot
English bootleg
From the same root
English reboot ← boot

Pronunciation

  • US: /ˈbutˌlɛɡ/[1]

Etymology

It is formed from English boot + leg.[2][3][4][5] The use for illicit alcohol is American;[6][3] most dictionaries explain it by the practice of hiding a flask or bottle of liquor in the leg of a high boot,[3][6][7][8][9][10] and Etymonline adds that the bootleg had earlier been the place to hide knives and pistols.[3] The OED, revised in 2025, calls the original motivation unclear: besides concealment in the boot, there is earlier evidence that cheap whisky was coloured with old boot-legs and other adulterants to make it look aged.[2] The verb is from the noun.[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The part of a boot that covers the lower leg: 1575, in Elizabethan churchwardens' accounts.[2] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster date this sense to the 1630s (1634).[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense of illicit alcohol appeared in the United States in the mid-19th century: the OED has the adjective from 1861 and the noun from 1844,[2] while Barnhart dates the noun to before 1889,[6] and Green's Dictionary of Slang has boot leg saloon in Iowa in 1885.[10] The verb, to make, transport or sell liquor illegally, is recorded from 1885,[2] or 1898 and 1903 in other sources,[4][6] and the word was much used during Prohibition.[2][4] From the 1920s it was extended to other goods and services traded outside the law, and since 1926 it has been used of unauthorized recordings of music;[2] Etymonline dates the recording sense to 1957.[3] In the 1870s and 1880s bootleg was also American slang for adulterated or imitation coffee.[2] Football adopted it in 1921 for a play in which the quarterback fakes a hand-off and runs with the ball hidden,[2] and since 1998 a bootleg has also been a mash-up of two pieces of popular music.[2]

Timeline

  • 1575 – the leg of a boot.[2]
  • 1844 – illegally made or sold alcohol.[2]
  • 1861 – adjective, of illicit alcohol.[2]
  • 1872 – imitation or adulterated coffee (obsolete by 1893).[2]
  • 1885 – verb, to make or sell alcohol illegally.[2][10]
  • 1905 – verb, to smuggle or sell other illicit goods.[2]
  • 1921 – a football play with a hidden ball.[2]
  • 1926 – of recordings, made or copied without authorization.[2]
  • 1998 – a mash-up of two pieces of popular music.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The upper part of a boot, covering the lower leg.[4][2]
  2. Alcohol that is made, transported or sold illegally; moonshine.[4][2][10]
  3. An unauthorized recording or copy, especially of a live concert or a film: a bootleg of the band's 1972 tour.[4][2]
  4. (American football) A play in which the quarterback fakes a hand-off and runs toward the sideline with the ball hidden.[2][5]
  5. A piece of music made by combining parts of two existing songs; a mashup.[2]

Adjective

  1. Made, sold or distributed illegally or without authorization: bootleg whiskey or bootleg software.[4][2][5]
  2. Clandestine or unofficial.[4][2]

Verb

  1. To make, transport or sell alcohol illegally.[4][2][10]
  2. To make or sell unauthorized copies of recordings or other goods; to smuggle.[4][2]

Word family

  • bootlegger

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
Cite this entry

“Bootleg.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/bootleg. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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