Where does “bootleg” come from?
I can't write an accurate etymology sentence for this entry because the chain provided only cycles through "English leg" and "English bootleg" repeatedly without showing any origin language or historical development before English. A valid etymological chain requires at least one pre-English source language to explain how the word came into English. Could you provide the complete chain starting from the earliest attested source?
bootleg (English): To make, transport and/or sell illegal alcoholic...
Definitions
- To make, transport and/or sell illegal alcoholic...
Ancestry of “bootleg”, step by step
bootleg traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English boot
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | boot | A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg; A blow... |
| 2 | French | botte | boot; something resembling a boot; oppression |
| 3 | Italian | botta | blow, hit, shock, knock, attack |
| 4 | Italian | bottare | — |
| 5 | French | bouter | to push; to remove flesh from the skin of an... |
| 6 | Middle French | bouter | to pull |
| 7 | Old French | bouter | to strike; to hit; to place; to put; to enter |
| 8 | Frankish | bautan | to push, strike, beat; to hit, strike; to hit,... |
| 9 | Proto-West Germanic | bautan | to beat |
| 10 | Proto-Germanic | bautaną | to beat, push |
| 11 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰewd- | to hit, strike; to beat, push; to strike, push,... |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰew- | to grow, swell; to swell, wax, grow; to blow; to... |