Booted

How to spell booted

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce booted

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does booted mean?

1. verbPast tense of boot: started up a computer or device so that it became ready to use.
2. verbPast tense of boot: forcibly removed or kicked someone out of a place or position.
3. adjectiveEquipped with or wearing boots.

Booted in a sentence

• verb

  The laptop booted in under ten seconds after the update.

• verb

  The rowdy fan was booted out of the stadium by security.

• adjective

  The booted hikers set off across the muddy moorland at dawn.

• verb

  The server booted cleanly once the faulty drive was removed.

• verb

  He was booted off the committee after missing every meeting.

• adjective

  The booted riders looked ready for the long trek ahead.

Where does booted come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on 'boot' plus the ending '-ed'. The footwear sense of 'boot' came into English in the 1300s from the Old French 'bote', a word for a sturdy covering for the foot and lower leg, whose own earlier source is uncertain. From the noun grew a verb meaning to kick or to drive out with the foot, since a boot was the natural tool for the job. The computing sense is a much later and rather clever twist: a machine that prepares itself for use was said to 'bootstrap', from the old joke about pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps, and that long word was shortened to 'boot', giving us a computer that has 'booted'. Across all of these meanings the spelling stays reassuringly regular, with the double 'o' of boot kept intact before the '-ed'.

How the word is built

• boot (from Old French bote: a covering for the foot)
• -ed (past tense / adjectival suffix)