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booty

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Pronunciation

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

booty1 plunder, spoils

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

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