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Origin and history of bootstrap

bootstrap(n.)

also boot-strap, tab or loop at the back of the top of a men's boot, which the wearer hooked a finger through to pull the boots on, 1870, from boot (n.1) + strap (n.).

To pull (oneself) up by (one's) bootstraps, by 1871, was used figuratively of an impossible task (among the "practical questions" at the end of chapter one of Steele's "Popular Physics" schoolbook (1888) is, "30. Why can not a man lift himself by pulling up on his boot-straps?"). But it also is used to suggest "better oneself by rigorous, unaided effort." The meaning "fixed sequence of instructions to load the operating system of a computer" (1953) is from the notion of the first-loaded program pulling itself (and the rest) up by the bootstrap. It was used earlier of electrical circuits (1946).

also from 1870

Entries linking to bootstrap

boot(n.1)

"covering for the foot and lower leg," early 14c., from Old French bote "boot" (12c.), with corresponding words in Provençal, Spanish, and Medieval Latin, all of unknown origin, perhaps from a Germanic source. Originally of riding boots only.

From c. 1600 as "fixed external step of a coach." This later was extended to "low outside compartment used for stowing luggage" (1781) and hence the transferred use in Britain in reference to the storage compartment in a motor vehicle (American English uses trunk (n.1)).

Boot-black "person who shines boots and shoes" is from 1817; boot-jack "implement to hold a boot by the heel while the foot is drawn from it" is from 1793. Boot Hill, U.S. frontier slang for "cemetery" (1893, in a Texas panhandle context) probably is an allusion to dying with one's boots on. An old Dorsetshire word for "half-boots" was skilty-boots [Halliwell, Wright].

strap(n.)

1610s, "narrow band of leather," from a Scottish and/or nautical variant of strope "loop or strap on a harness" (mid-14c.), which is probably from Old French estrop "strap," from Latin stroppus "strap, band," ultimately (perhaps via Etruscan) from Greek strophos "twisted band; a cord, rope," from strephein "to turn" (see strepto-).

Old English stropp, Dutch strop "halter" also are borrowed from Latin, and the Old English word might be the source of the modern one. Generally a strap is used for mechanical purposes. As "long, narrow piece of iron or other metal," 1570s. Specifically as an instrument for flogging by 1710. The slang meaning "credit" is from 1828.

boot(v.2)

1975, transitive, "start up (a computer) by causing an operating system to load in the memory," from bootstrap (v.), a 1958 derived verb from bootstrap (n.) in the sense of "fixed sequence of instructions to load the operating system of a computer" (1953).

This is from the notion of the first-loaded program pulling itself (and the rest) up by the bootstrap. The intransitive use, of a computer operating system, is from 1983. Related: Booted; booting.

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