boot: [14] Boot is a comparatively late acquisition by English. It came, either directly or via Old Norse bóti, from Old French bote, whose source is unknown. The modern British sense ‘car’s luggage compartment’ goes back to a 17thcentury term for an outside compartment for attendants on a coach, which may have come directly from modern French botte. The boot of ‘to boot’ is a completely different word. It comes from Old English bōt ‘advantage, remedy’, which can be traced back to a prehistoric Germanic base *bat-, source also of better and best. => best, better
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].
boot (n.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).
boot (v.2)
"start up a computer," 1975, from bootstrap (v.), a 1958 derived verb from bootstrap (n.) in the computer sense.
boot (v.1)
"to kick," 1877, American English, from boot (n.1). Generalized sense of "eject, kick out" is from 1880. Related: Booted; booting.
