Ok, I swear I wasn't one of those kids that annoyed grown ups with asking "why?" about everything, but in my old age, I've apparently turned into that kid. My wife finds it amusing, so I guess I'm a lucky guy . I'm always asking questions on seemingly trivial matters that are accepted without question: why 7 days in a week? why is the day divided by day and night of 12 hours? how did romans do math with roman numerals? why people in GB have such poor taste in food?
So, today, I happen to ask, why do we say "boot your computer", or "reboot your computer", etc? How does it have anything to do with the things you wear on your feet?
So, I came across this:
So, today, I happen to ask, why do we say "boot your computer", or "reboot your computer", etc? How does it have anything to do with the things you wear on your feet?
So, I came across this:
I never knew...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.).
Circa 1900, to pull (oneself) up by (one's) bootstraps 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?" and an excellent question it is). By 1916 the meaning of the phrase had expanded to include "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).