boot
n.
1
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].
2
"profit, use," Old English bot "help, relief, advantage; atonement," literally "a making better," from Proto-Germanic *boto (see better, adj.). Compare German Buße "penance, atonement," Gothic botha "advantage." Now mostly in phrase to boot (Old English to bote).
v.
1
"to kick," 1877, American English, from boot, n.1. Generalized sense of "eject, kick out" is from 1880. Related: Booted; booting.
2
"start up a computer," 1975, from bootstrap (v.), a 1958 derived verb from bootstrap, n. in the computer sense.