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Just thinking

LizyLizy
edited September 2014 in Writing
If a sabot is a wooden shoe, does sabotage mean kicking something to pieces whilst wearing some?

Comments

  • heatherheather
    edited September 2014
    Didn't the word come from factory workers wearing sabots who threw their shoes into the new machinery to break it so they wouldn't lose their jobs?

    So not quite murder, but in the right direction.
  • CarolCarol
    I have the Cassell Dictionary of Word Histories, and apparently the shoes being thrown into machinery "but this origin is not substantiated", and they state it's more likely the noise from the sabots.

  • EddisburyEddisbury
    For this sort of question, there's a fascinating site here:
    http://www.etymonline.com
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    OED: Origin early 20th century; from French saboter, 'kick with sabots, wilfully destroy'.
    There's an elderly lady here who pushes her recycling in a wheelbarrow from one end of the village to the collection point at the other, while wearing wooden sabots over a pair of short socks. I'd have thought the worst damage a sabot could do would be to the foot of the wearer. Those things are hard.
    Said elderly lady is a worker of the most exquisite embroidery. You can't judge by appearances.
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    P.S. In the north of England, there is a concept of giving someone or something a good clogging. I think there must be something about wearing them that brings out the, erm, fiery nature of the wearer.
  • LizyLizy
    So my guess was right! Why I was pondering that on my morning walk is another mystery!

    Do you think, Mrs Bear, that the wearing of sabots might damage one's ability with the embroidery needle? Any doctors amongst us to answer this troubling question?
  • Baggy BooksBaggy Books
    Only an issue if she uses her toes and not her fingers?
  • Stan2Stan2
    Precisely!
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    I was encouraged by this thread to look up 'clog', which comes from a word meaning a block of wood used to keep animals inside an anclosure. A clogger is a football player who frequently commits fouls on other players. (Mr Bear immediately mentioned Nobby Stiles, which a) shows his age and b) his total disinterest in anything to do with football post 1966 - in the latter of which I join him.)
    The sabot lady looks like a farmer, keeps hunting dogs in kennels behind her house, which has 1665 over the door, and is never seen without her apron - the tabard sort. She has a voice that would etch glass, and she is lovely.
  • LizyLizy
    edited September 2014
    You certainly have some characters round your way, Mrs Bear - I can imagine you fitting right in! :)

    There seems to be no connection between the clog one wears - or doesn;'t if one;s sensible - and the clog you get in a pipe if your pour dripping down it.

    Words are odd things, aren't they?
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    *ponders; finds she cannot deny Lizy's conclusion*
    I was going to use an appropriate smiley thing, but I'm on Kindle and even in my specs I can't see the darn things.
  • LizyLizy
    I can't even see them properly on my laptop screen - I have to peer over the top of my glasses from three inches away - so anything smaller would be a definite no-go!
  • C2C2
    edited September 2014
    'A voice that would etch glass

    what a wonderful description.
  • snailmalesnailmale
    edited September 2014
    I had a colleague who wore clogs to the office. They were posh clogs, grey leather tops attached to wooden cloggy soles, but they were kosher clogs, nevertheless. He wore them with a business suit and even trotted them in to project meetings at board level. He was, of course, subjected to a great deal of raucous p*ss taking which he chose to ignore.
    His name was Pete, although it has been previously established that he was not one of TN's Petes.
    He originated from Oswaldtwistle, which explains a lot.
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    edited September 2014
    Oswaldtwistle:Tongue of land belonging to Oswald. (1246: Oswaldestwisel)
    Twisla (OE) fork of a river, land in such a fork.
  • LizyLizy
    Wow Mrs Bear! The things you know!

    The village where I lived for 35 years and to which I hope to rturn is called Hurstpierpoint.
    A Hurst that was given to a Frenchman (damned immigrants!) called Pierpoint. I have often wondered if he was related to THE Pierpoint of infamy.
  • Mrs BearMrs Bear
    Robert [de Pierpoint] held the manor in 1086. 1279 Herst Perepunt; originally Hyrst, which probably meant brushwood. Otherwise a hillock, knoll, esp of a sandy nature, copse, wood, wooded eminence.
    I've got an Oxford dictionary of place names which I bought for £12 at a book fair in Wimborne ('meadow stream') a few years ago. Keeps me amused.
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