Dictionary

pull oneself up by one's bootstraps en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

Early 19th century US; attested 1834. In original use, often used to refer to pulling oneself over a fence, and implying that someone is attempting or has claimed some ludicrously far-fetched or impossible task. Presumably a variant on a traditional tall tale, as elaborated below. The shift in sense to a possible task appears to have developed in the early 20th century, and the use of the phrase to mean “a ludicrous task” continued into the 1920s. Widely attributed since at least 1901 to The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, (1781) by Rudolf Erich Raspe, where the eponymous Baron pulls himself out of a swamp by his own pigtail, though not by his bootstraps. The Adventures is primarily a collection of centuries-old tall tales, however, and using bootstraps may have arisen as a variant on the same theme.

Meanings

1. (idiomatic) To begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help; to succeed only by one's own efforts or abilities.
   • It is conjectured that Mr. Murphee will now be enabled to hand himself over the Cumberland river or a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots. 1834 Oct. 4, Workingman's Advocate, p. 1
   • Up to a point, civilization can lift itself up by its boot-tags. However unjustly society is organized, certain technical advances are bound to benefit the whole community, because certain kinds of goods are necessarily held in common. 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:
   • We can't get a loan, so we'll just have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.

Forms

Deriveds

bootstrap paradox · bootstrap · bootstrappy

Relateds

poverty is a state of mind · Uncle Sugar · gibsmedat · lone wolf · self-starter · rugged individualism

Synonyms

lift oneself up by one's own boot-tags · lift oneself up by one's own waistbands · take oneself up by one's own ears · lift oneself up by one's boot-tags

Translations (7)

is hjálparlaust (to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help) · pl dochodzić do czegoś samemu (to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help) · pl dojść do czegoś samemu (to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help) · es como Juan Palomo (to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help) · fi ottaa itseään niskasta kiinni (to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help) · is af eigin rammleik (to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help) · hu a maga/saját erejéből boldogul (to begin an enterprise or recover from a setback without any outside help)

wikipedia: Rudolf Erich Raspe