By Barbara McAlister
Word of the Day: Sabotage
Sabotage, the action of deliberately destroying or damaging something, often for military or political gain, comes from the French word “sabot,” a type of wooden shoe worn by peasants. Wooden clogs were not the exclusive domain of the Dutch — in medieval times wooden shoes were a relatively practical and cheap footwear among rural populations in Europe.
The connection of “sabotage” to “sabot” has several stories, but they all center around workers during Frances’ Industrial Revolution. Rural workers became known as sabots, because of the noisy sound they made walking the cobblestoned city streets. They were often viewed as clumsy and inept. One speculation is when the French invention of the automated loom put weavers out of jobs, they threw their wooden shoes into the machinery to create stoppages.
More likely the word arose when sabots were brought to work in urban factories when city workers went on strike. Because the rural workers were not familiar with modern machinery, their work was slower and produced inferior quality. Sabotage became slang for a shoddy job. Striking workers soon realized the tactical advantage of using this as a bargaining tool.
Words related to sabot include “zapato,” the Spanish word for shoe; “sabbat,” the Arabic word for sandal; and “ciabatta,” the Italian word for slipper, whose slipper shape gave name to the tasty bread. The English word “slipshod,” another word for shoddy, literally means loose slipper.
