War, law & ruleMyths & disputes

sabotage

French saboter meant to clatter about in sabots (wooden clogs) and then to do a job clumsily; French syndicalists made sabotage a strike tactic, and the word spread with the labour movement and revolution, to Russia and to Japan, where saboru now means skipping class.

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The story you may have heard

That striking workers threw their clogs into the machines. The word comes from clumsy, clattering work in clogs, not from wrecking machinery with them.

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1500French

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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