Why is the footwear of the German Army of WWII referred to as jackboots? Is it a direct translation, a reference I just don’t get, or something else?
The OED dates jack-boot to 1686, though specifies that these days it typically refers to the Nazis’ use of them (or to their oppressive tactics). They also state that the exact derivation of the “jack” in jackboot is “uncertain.” Their two likely candidates are these two meanings of “jack”:
(a) “A coat of fence, a kind of sleeveless tunic or jacket, formerly worn by foot-soldiers and others, usually of leather quilted, and in later times often plated with iron; sometimes applied to a coat of mail.” This dates back to 1380.
(b) a connotation just meaning “A man of the common people; a lad, fellow, chap” (1548). Jack as a proper noun (since the earliest mentionings of Jack-Boots are capitalized) with the same meaning dates even earlier, to 1362.
The OED suggests that the former is more likely, but it may be the latter. Does anyone know what the German word for jackboot is?
The Germans in WWII didn’t wear jackboots. Jackboots are long boots that come up over the knee, as worn by the British Household cavalry when in dress uniform.
The term jackboot came to be synonymous with brutal military oppression, particularly of civilians (probably because cavalry were often used for this purpose), and use of this term in WWII to describe Nazi tactics led people to assume that the boots worn by the Germans were jackboots.
Y’think it may be beause one needed a bootjack to take them off?
It also helped to have a “dogrobber” to pull them off after you jacked them loose
Ezstrete said
NO. The term bootjack doesn’t appear in print until the mid-1800’s.
And dogrobber to mean “an orderly” is even more recent(late 1800’s.).
german word for jackboot? prolly something like “judenschtomper’”
geez…that was sooooo politically incorrect…
To Sam Clem—
Points taken-----
But there were a heck of a lot of "words"in use before Gutenberg turned the screw.
I wonder if John Ashcroft goes by the nickname Jack. Then we could say that he put the Jack in jackboot.
Sorry, an MSPSIMS moment.
I’d worry less about his jackboots then the ones I put on when people try to take cheap political shots in General Questions.