Etymograph

English

boot

Boot comes from Middle English boote ‘shoe’, and goes back to Old French bote.

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400bote‘a high, thick shoe’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500boote‘shoe’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1641boot

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Earlier history uncertain.

Lineage

  1. Old Frenchc. 842–1400bote‘a high, thick shoe’
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500boote‘shoe’
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1641boot

Earliest quotation: 1641, Ben Jonson: “Coated and booted for it.”

The story

Of obscure origin, but probably related to Old French bot (‘club-foot’), bot (‘fat, short, blunt’), from Old Frankish *butt, from Proto-Germanic *buttaz, *butaz (‘cut off, short, numb, blunt’), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewt-, *bʰewd- (‘to strike, push, shock’); if so, a doublet of butt.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain.

Linked words

through Frankish *bautan ‘to strike’

butt, 1 more

Another origin of boot

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰed-‘good’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bōtō‘atonement, improvement’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bōtu‘improvement, betterment’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150bōt‘help, relief, advantage’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500boote
  6. Englishtodayboot

Today it means

noun A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Old French bote / boot

Shirt and support for this word