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booty

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Etymology and origin of the English word booty

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈbuːti/[1]
  • US: /ˈbuti/[1]

booty1 plunder, spoils

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1474 Caxton, Game and Playe of the Chesse
Borrowed from
Middle French butin via Middle English
Ultimate origin
Middle Low German būte

Etymology

The plunder is inherited from Middle English botye, later buty,[2] borrowed from Middle French butin,[3][4][5][6] from Middle Low German būte (“exchange, distribution”), also buite,[3][6][7] which is of uncertain origin.[2][7] Barnhart and the Oxford Dictionary of English allow a direct borrowing of the Low German word, Barnhart also of Middle Dutch buyt.[2][7] It is related to Dutch buit, Middle High German biute and German Beute "booty", and to Old Norse býti (“exchange, barter”).[8][5][6] The OED notes that the English forms point to a long o, and that the word was influenced in form by boot "profit, advantage";[8][3][5] Klein explains the English ending, which replaced the French one, by the analogy of other nouns in -y.[5] Both booty and butin are first found within a few lines of each other in Caxton's “Game and Playe of the Chesse”,[8] and Etymonline has a form bottyne from the mid 15th century.[4] An adjective boti, profiting by plunder, appears in Lydgate's “Fall of Princes” about 1439.[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plunder taken from an enemy in war: 1474, in Caxton's translation of the Game and Playe of the Chesse.[8][2] The OED explains that it was originally plunder gained in common and meant to be divided among the winners.[8]

Semantic evolution

The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins sees the root idea as "distribution", since victors divided the spoils among themselves.[10] By 1567 booty was also what thieves took.[8] From 1574 it could be any gain or prize, with no thought of shared plunder.[8] To play booty, to join with a partner to cheat a third player, or to lose on purpose, was a gamblers' phrase of the 16th century: Green's Dictionary of Slang cites booty fellows from 1555,[11] and the OED dates the phrase from 1575.[8] Johnson (1755) defined it as plunder or spoils taken from an enemy, and also things got by robbery.[12] In international law, Merriam-Webster notes, booty is spoils taken on land, as opposed to a prize captured at sea.[3]

Timeline

  • c. 1439 – boti, profiting by plunder.[9]
  • 1474 – plunder taken in war.[8][2]
  • 1555 – booty fellows, confederates who cheat at play.[11]
  • 1567 – the loot of robbers or thieves.[8]
  • 1574 – loosely, any gain or prize.[8]
  • 1575 – to play booty.[8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Plunder or spoils taken by force, especially from an enemy in war.[3][6][8]
  2. Goods stolen by robbers or thieves; loot.[8][12]
  3. Any valuable gain, reward or prize.[3][6][8]
  4. (international law) Spoils taken on land, as distinct from a prize captured at sea.[3]
  5. to play booty: to cheat in a game together with a confederate, or to lose on purpose.[8][11][12]

Word family

  • bootyless

booty2 buttocks

Confidence
Disputed
First attested
1926 C. Van Vechten
Ultimate origin
English botty

Etymology

The buttocks word is probably from English an altered form of botty, a children's word for the bottom recorded from 1842,[8][10][7] perhaps influenced by the plunder word.[8] Merriam-Webster derives it instead from an English-based creole word, akin to similar words for the buttocks in Gullah (Sea Islands Creole), Jamaican Creole and Krio, all from an assumed early modern English bottie, formed from a shortening of bottom and -ie.[3] Green's Dictionary of Slang and Dictionary.com relate it to body, Green also comparing butt,[11][13] from which Collins derives it.[6] A variant is boody.[11][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Sexual intercourse, or a woman regarded as an object of sexual desire: 1926, in C. Van Vechten.[8][11] Green's Dictionary of Slang has an earlier song title, "She Got Good Booty", recalled from about 1908.[11]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline dates the sense "the female body as a sex object" to the 1920s in African-American vernacular, and notes that it could shift to intercourse or to the body parts, like nookie and ass.[4] The OED records the meaning "buttocks" only from 1959,[8] although the Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins thinks the sexual sense probably grew out of it.[10] The word spread from Black American slang into general informal use;[11] Merriam-Webster labels it chiefly American.[3] Bootylicious, sexy, dates from 1994 and was made popular by a Destiny's Child song of 2001.[10] From the late 1980s, in hip-hop lyrics, booty was also an adjective for something weak or second-rate,[11] and Dalzell records it for "unpleasant, unattractive" from 1997.[14]

Timeline

  • 1926 – sexual intercourse; a woman as a sex object.[8][11]
  • 1959 – the buttocks.[8]
  • 1989 – adjective, inferior, second-rate.[11]
  • 1994 – bootylicious.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (slang, chiefly US) The buttocks.[3][6][8]
  2. (slang) Sexual intercourse, or a person regarded as a sexual partner.[3][8][11]

Adjective

  1. (slang) Weak, inferior or unpleasant.[11][14]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  7. ^ a b c d Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
  10. ^ a b c d e Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  12. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  13. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  14. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Booty.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/booty. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.

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