footwear, early 14c., from Old French bote "boot" (12c.), with corresponding words in Provençal and Spanish, of unknown origin, perhaps from a Germanic source. Originally for riding boots only. An old Dorsetshire word for "half-boots" was skilty-boots [Halliwell, Wright].
"profit, use," Old English bot "help, relief, advantage; atonement," literally "a making better," from Proto-Germanic *boto (see better (adj.)). Cf. German Buße "penance, atonement," Gothic botha "advantage." Now mostly in phrase to boot (Old English to bote).
"to kick," 1877, American English, from boot (n.1). Generalized sense of "eject, kick out" is from 1880. Related: Booted; booting.
"start up a computer," 1975, from bootstrap (v.), a 1958 derived verb from bootstrap (n.) in the computer sense.
hardboot, rubber boots, to boot
To start up or input a computer'soperatingsystem:Thetypicalfirststepinworking with a computer, then, is to load the DOS programs; this is called ''booting up''/ He showed me how to log in and boot the operating system
[1970s+ Computers; fr earlierbootstrap,becauseafterasimpleactionlikepressing one key, the computer loads the operating system itself, as if it were raising itself by its own bootstraps]