Why do we say "to boot"?
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Music by Eric Matyas
https://www.soundimage.org
Track title: Book End
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Chapters
00:00 Why Do We Say &Quot;To Boot&Quot;?
00:24 Accepted Answer Score 41
00:51 Answer 2 Score 4
01:15 Answer 3 Score 0
01:36 Thank you
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Full question
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Tags
#phrases #phraseorigin #colloquialisms
#avk47
ACCEPTED ANSWER
Score 41
Nowadays, "to boot" is simply an idiomatic way of saying "moreover, on top of that" (see e.g. Wiktionary). Originally, it comes from Old English to bote. As Etymonline explains, in Old English bot meant "'help, relief, advantage; atonement,' literally 'a making better,'" from Proto-Germanic *boto, which is also where the word better comes from.
ANSWER 2
Score 4
It seems that to boot simply meens in addition.
My wife made a disgusting looking dinner, and it tasted awful too!
The origin would be bat meaning useful, so the original meaning would be used only in a positive sense.
ANSWER 3
Score 0
"Boot" also has a legal meaning. In commercial law, it means something additional that the seller gives, something not required by the contract.
Example: "When I took my car for an oil change, the dealer washed and waxed it, to boot."
A synonym is "lagniappe", used mostly in the southeastern USA.