Newsgroup: it.fan.marco-ditri
Titolo: Bootstrap

Posted by Robert Strong on April 29, 2000 at 10:52:48:
In Reply to: Re: Bootstraps posted by ESC on April 28, 2000 at 23:05:31:
: : : Contrary to you entry in your phrase definition and origin section I
believe that the phrase 'Pull yourself up by your bootstraps' pre-dates the
era of the computer and was used by the computer folk to indicate what
clever chaps they were to be able to persuade an empty computer to self load
complex and relatively large programs following the operator keying in just
a few instructions - the bootstrap.
: : : Now I know all about bootstraps in the computer sense as I'm old
enough to have used just about every model produced between the early
fifties, sixties and seventies and continue to struggle with some of the
models produced up to the present day. However, I can find no definitive
reference to this phrase which pre-dates the computer age. Please don't tell
me that a bunch of computer nerds really did invent it; I just couldn't bear
that.
: : I agree that it refers to boots of the footware variety. If you search
the archives under "pull," you can access a previous discussion on this
topic.
: From "Heavens to Betsy" by Charles Earle Funk (Harper & Row, New York,
1955):
: "TO LIFT (or hoist or pull up) ONESELF BY THE BOOTSTRAPS - You may travel
all over the United States, North, South, East or West, or in any part of
Canada or England, and find almost no one who isn't familiar with one form
or another of this expression. It is hardly necessary to say that by its use
we mean to raise oneself through one's unaided efforts above one's former
cultural, social, or economic level. And yet, beyond being able to state
positively that the expression cannot be more than 350 years old, I cannot
say in what English-speaking country it originated, or even whether it dates
back to the time of George Washington and George the Third of England,
though I am almost certain that it is considerably older. That is, I myself
have not been able to turn up any printed use or record of this common
expression at any date earlier than about ten years ago. It occurs on page
456 of 'The Beards' Basic History of the United States' (1944) by Charles A.
and Mary R. Beard. Undoubtedly it has appeared earlier, but no dictionary
nor other reference work has made note of it. Yet I have seen it in print
several times since. In fact, I cannot even tell you nor hazard a guess as
to how old the compound word 'bootstrap' may be. The earliest printed
record, as far as I have been able to discover, is in the Funk & Wagnalls
Standard dictionary, 1894; and there it appears only in the definitions of
two related words - boot-hook and strap.But this strap was known to
Shakespeare. In 'Twelfth Night,' (1601), Act I, scene 3, Sir Toby Belch
makes the comment: 'These cloathes are good enough to drink in: and so bee
these boots too; and they be not, let them hang themselues in their owne
straps.'.the expression (lift oneself by the bootstraps) alludes to the
struggle from early date to late date in inserting one's foot into a
well-fitting boot.The bootstrap was invented to give the would-be wearer a
better purchase."
I feel better already. Thanks.

Io usavo il termine 'bootstrap' ancora 30 anni fa in elettronica quando
andavo a scuola con i pantaloni corti.
Il termine si utilizza nella polarizzazione dei transistor, quindi 10 anni
prima della nascita del personal computer.