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Original · left

Boot (footwear)

A sturdy style of footwear encasing the foot and reaching up the calf or ankle.

First in use: ancient / pre-modern
Duplicate · right

Booting

The operational process of loading and initializing an operating system kernel from persistent storage into active memory.

First in use: the 1950s

Boot / Boot (footwear) / Booting

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Canonical todayMeasuring…
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Duplicate share · 12 mo—
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Colour keyGrey · original meaningGreen · duplicate meaningAmber · contested (40–60%)How colours work

Footwear vs. bootstrapping a kernel.

Which meaning of Boot is the original, and which one is the duplicate riding on its name? Boot (footwear) came first (ancient / pre-modern). Booting arrived in the 1950s. The data below shows which one owns the word now.

Wikipedia pageviews since 2015

Boot (footwear)Booting
English Wikipedia pageviews since July 2015 load here.

Duplicate's share of attention

Green line = duplicate's % · above 60 it owns the word · below 40 the original does

Share-of-attention line loads here.

The case for each meaning

Sourced definitions, usage stats and quotes

Original · ancient / pre-modern

Boot (footwear)

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Duplicate · the 1950s

Booting

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More duplicated terms

Hardware & devices