Post by t-bob on Jan 30, 2019 10:19:03 GMT -5
BOOTSTRAP
verb
1. to help (oneself) without the aid of others: She spent years bootstrapping herself through college.
2. Computers. boot (defs 24, 28).
noun
1. a loop of leather or cloth sewn at the top rear, or sometimes on each side, of a boot to facilitate pulling it on.
2. a means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something: He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.
adjective
1. relying entirely on one's efforts and resources: The business was a bootstrap operation for the first ten years.
2. self-generating or self-sustaining: a bootstrap process.
Idioms
1. pull (oneself) up by (one's) bootstraps, to help oneself without the aid of others; use one's resources: I admire him for pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.
Quotes
From very humble beginnings, he bootstrapped himself into becoming an excellent trial lawyer. -- Karl Friedman, The Professor, 2000 He bootstrapped himself during and after the war from woodworker at the bench to foreman, work superintendent, dispatcher, planner, and head of several technical bureaus at Sevuraltyazhstroi. -- Timothy J. Colton, Yeltsin: A Life, 2008
Origin
Bootstrap, originally spelled boot-strap, entered English in its literal sense in the second half of the 19th century. By about 1900 the idiom “to pull (oneself) up by (one's) bootstraps” was used to exemplify an impossible task, i.e., “Why can’t a man stand up by pulling on his bootstraps?”. By 1916 the idiom had also acquired the meaning “to better oneself by rigorous, unaided effort.” In the mid-20th century, bootstrap acquired the technical meaning "a fixed sequence of instructions for loading the operating system of a computer," i.e., the program loaded first would pull itself (and the others) up by the bootstrap, from a somewhat earlier usage in the mid-1940s in reference to electrical circuits.
verb
1. to help (oneself) without the aid of others: She spent years bootstrapping herself through college.
2. Computers. boot (defs 24, 28).
noun
1. a loop of leather or cloth sewn at the top rear, or sometimes on each side, of a boot to facilitate pulling it on.
2. a means of advancing oneself or accomplishing something: He used his business experience as a bootstrap to win voters.
adjective
1. relying entirely on one's efforts and resources: The business was a bootstrap operation for the first ten years.
2. self-generating or self-sustaining: a bootstrap process.
Idioms
1. pull (oneself) up by (one's) bootstraps, to help oneself without the aid of others; use one's resources: I admire him for pulling himself up by his own bootstraps.
Quotes
From very humble beginnings, he bootstrapped himself into becoming an excellent trial lawyer. -- Karl Friedman, The Professor, 2000 He bootstrapped himself during and after the war from woodworker at the bench to foreman, work superintendent, dispatcher, planner, and head of several technical bureaus at Sevuraltyazhstroi. -- Timothy J. Colton, Yeltsin: A Life, 2008
Origin
Bootstrap, originally spelled boot-strap, entered English in its literal sense in the second half of the 19th century. By about 1900 the idiom “to pull (oneself) up by (one's) bootstraps” was used to exemplify an impossible task, i.e., “Why can’t a man stand up by pulling on his bootstraps?”. By 1916 the idiom had also acquired the meaning “to better oneself by rigorous, unaided effort.” In the mid-20th century, bootstrap acquired the technical meaning "a fixed sequence of instructions for loading the operating system of a computer," i.e., the program loaded first would pull itself (and the others) up by the bootstrap, from a somewhat earlier usage in the mid-1940s in reference to electrical circuits.
