Where does “freebooter” come from?
Freebooter derives from English free and English bootleg, with bootleg coming from English boot and English leg, ultimately from English bottom.
freebooter (English): An adventurer who pillages, plunders or wages...
Definitions
- An adventurer who pillages, plunders or wages...
Ancestry of “freebooter”, step by step
freebooter traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English booty
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | booty | A form of prize which, when a ship was captured... |
| 2 | English | boot | A heavy shoe that covers part of the leg; A blow... |
| 3 | French | botte | boot; something resembling a boot; oppression |
| 4 | Italian | botta | blow, hit, shock, knock, attack |
| 5 | Italian | bottare | — |
| 6 | French | bouter | to push; to remove flesh from the skin of an... |
| 7 | Middle French | bouter | to pull |
| 8 | Old French | bouter | to strike; to hit; to place; to put; to enter |
| 9 | Frankish | bautan | to push, strike, beat; to hit, strike; to hit,... |
| 10 | Proto-West Germanic | bautan | to beat |
| 11 | Proto-Germanic | bautaną | to beat, push |
| 12 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰewd- | to hit, strike; to beat, push; to strike, push,... |
| 13 | Proto-Indo-European | bʰew- | to grow, swell; to swell, wax, grow; to blow; to... |
via English Free
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | Free | Unconstrained |
| 2 | English | faller | One who falls; A fruit that falls from the tree,... |
| 3 | English | -er | A person or thing that does an action indicated... |
| 4 | Middle English | -er | agentive suffix; agent noun suffix |
| 5 | Old French | -er | Alternative form of -ier, verbal suffix;... |
| 6 | Latin | -āre | first conjugation |
| 7 | Proto-Italic | -āō | Forms primarily denominative verbs |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | -eh₂yéti | Creates iterative/ frequentative/ intensive... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | -yéti | Creates intransitive, often deponent,... |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | yé- | — |
| 11 | Chichewa | iye | he, she |