A boot is a type of footwear. It mainly covers the foot and the ankle and extends up the leg, sometimes as far as the knee or even the hip. Most boots have a heel that is clearly distinguishable from the rest of the sole, even if the two are made of one piece. Traditionally made of leather or rubber, modern boots are made from a variety of materials. Boots are worn both for their functionality – protecting the foot and leg from water, snow, mud or hazards or providing additional ankle support for strenuous activities – and for reasons of style and fashion.
High-top athletic shoes are generally not considered boots, even though they do cover the ankle, primarily due to the absence of a distinct heel.
Cowboy boots were western style and went above the ankle.
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Boots designed for walking through the elements may be made of a single closely-stitched design (using leather, rubber, canvas, or similar material) to prevent the entry of water, snow, mud or dirt through the gaps left between the laces and the tongue in other types of shoes. Simple waterproof gumboots are made in different lengths of uppers. In extreme cases, thigh-boots called waders, worn by anglers, end at the hip level of the wearer. Such boots may also be insulated for warmth. Most boots commonly sold in retail stores are not actually waterproof.
Speciality boots have been made to temporarily protect steelworkers if they get caught in pools of molten metal; to protect chemical workers from a wide variety of chemical exposure; and there are insulated, inflatable, boots designed for walking in the Antarctic continent. However, most work boots are "laceups" made from leather; formerly they were usually shod with hobnails and heel- and toe-plates, but now usually with a thick rubber sole, and often with steel toecaps. Work boots (like the popular Dr. Martens) were adopted by skinheads and punks as part of their typical dress and have migrated to more mainstream fashion, including women's wear. As a more rugged alternative to dress shoes, dress boots may be worn (though these can also be more formal than shoes).
Specialty boots have been designed for many different types of sports, particularly riding, skiing and snowboarding, Ice skating, and sporting in wet conditions.
Fashionable boots for women may all the variations seen in other fashion footwear: tapered or spike heels, platform soles, pointed toes, zipper closures and the like. The popularity of boots as fashion footwear ebbs and flows. They were popular in the 1960s and 1970s, but diminished in popularity towards the end of the 20th century. Today, they are becoming popular, especially designs that have a long bootleg.
Boots have their own devotees among boot fetishists, shoe fetishists and foot fetishists. Singer Nancy Sinatra was largely responsible for popularizing the fad of women wearing boots in the late 1960s.
A type of boot can fit into more than one of these categories, and may therefore be mentioned more than once
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BOOT. (1) (From the O. Eng. Mt, a word common to Teutonic languages, e.g. Goth. bota, " good, advantage," O.H.G. Buoza, Mod. Ger. Busse, " penance, fine"; cf. "better," the comparative of "good"), profit or advantage. The word survives in "bootless," i.e. useless or unavailing, and in such expressions, chiefly archaistic, as "what boots it?" "Bote," an old form, survives in some old compound legal words, such as "housebote," "fire-bote," "hedge-bote," &c., for particular rights of "estover," the Norman French word corresponding to the Saxon "bote" (see Estovers and CoMMoNs). The same form survives also in such expressions as "thief-bote" for the Old English customary compensation paid for injuries.
(2) (A word of uncertain origin, which came into English through the O. Fr. bote, modern botte; Med. Lat. botta or bota), a covering for the foot. Properly a boot covers the whole lower part of the leg, sometimes reaching to or above the knee, but in common usage it is applied to one which reaches only above the ankle, and is thus distinguished from "shoe" (see Costume and Shoe) .
The "boot" of a coach has the same derivation. It was originally applied to the fixed outside step, the French botte, then to the uncovered spaces on or beside the step on which the attendants sat facing sideways. Both senses are now obsolete, the term now being applied to the covered receptacles under the seats of the guard and coachman.
THE BooT, Boots or Bootikin was an instrument of torture formerly in use to extort confessions from suspected persons, or obtain evidence from unwilling witnesses. It originated in Scotland, but the date of its first use is unknown. It was certainly frequently employed there in the latter years of the 16th century. In a case of forgery in 1579 two witnesses, a clergyman and an attorney, were so tortured. In a letter dated 1583 at the Record Office in London, Walsingham instructs the English ambassador at Edinburgh to have Father Holt, an English Jesuit, "put to the boots." It seems to have fallen into disuse after 1630, but was revived in 1666 on the occasion of the Covenanters' rebellion, and was employed during the reigns of Charles II. and James II. Upon the accession of William III. the Scottish convention denounced "the use of torture, without evidence and in ordinary crimes, as contrary to law." However, a year or so later, one Neville Payne, an Englishman suspected of treasonable motives for visiting Scotland, was put to the torture under the authority of a warrant signed by the king. This is the last recorded case of its use, torture being finally abolished in Scotland in 1709. It was not used in England after 1640. The boot was made of iron or wood and iron fastened on the leg, between which and the boot wedges were driven by blows from a mallet. After each blow a question was put to the victim, and the ordeal was continued until he gave the information or fainted. The wedges were usually placed against the calf of the leg, but Bishop Burnet says that they were sometimes put against the shin-bone. A similar instrument, called "Spanish boots," was used in Germany.
There were also iron boots which were heated on the victim's foot. A less cruel form was a boot or buskin made wet and drawn upon the legs and then dried with fire.
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Boot n. (genitive Boots or Bootes, plural Boote)
A boot is a type of footwear that protects the foot and ankle. Boots are higher and larger than shoes and sandals. Some boots are high enough to protect the calves (lower part of the leg) as well. Some boots are held on with bootstraps or bootlaces. Some also have spats or gaiters to keep water out. Most have a very strong boot sole, the bottom part of a boot.
People in English-speaking countries refer to boots in a figurative or joking manner when they tell someone "to lift yourself up by your own bootstraps". This is a joke because it is impossible for someone to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps. What the person is really saying is "figure out your problem yourself" or "find your own way to better your situation."
As well, people sometimes use the term to bootstrap. This is an idiom meaning "to use something simpler to get something more complex to make itself work better." The word "boot" is also used to describe how a computer starts up when a person presses the "on" button.
Another term "To boot" is an idiom meaning also. For example, people say "he had a beer, and a whiskey to boot." This means that the person had a beer, and also had a glass of whiskey. Another slang use of the word "boot" is to say "Fred got the boot from the company." This means that Fred got fired from the company.
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   | The History of Boots - Podiatry Department, School of Physiotherapy, Curtin University |
 | Sugar Boots - Designer Shoes And Footwear Brands At Lake Shore |
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