boot n2
1 a The trunk of a car. [Transf from boot the luggage compartment of a coach or other carriage; in the US (and Canada) generally replaced by trunk, but still the std term in Brit Engl] scattered, but chiefly W Midl, Sth, esp OH relic
[1910 Hamilton Telegraph (OH) 30 June 2/4, Upon raising the boot of the buggy what should they find but two fine Plymouth Rock hens . . setting upon some eggs.] 1921 Daily Union–Herald (Circleville OH) 23 May 4/2, Both hind wheels, fenders and boot of the car were smashed. 1927 Fairfield Daily Ledger(IA) 24 Sept 1/5, The boot of the car was filled with luggage, and this all was burned with the car which was a total loss. 1950 WELS Suppl., 1 Inf, cwWI, Boot—the trunk compartment of a car. 1952 Wilson Daily Times (NC) 18 Jan 8/3 [Black], He said he told her that she shouldn’t be seen riding with him and that she then got into the “boot” of the car. 1957 Daily News–Rec. (Harrisonburg VA) 30 July 7/2, The driver [of a stolen car] apparently hit a pole causing a flat tire. The boot of the car was prized open and the tire changed. 1969 DARE FW Addit c, seKY, Boot. . . Trunk of a car. 1972 Atlanta Letters, As a child around Athens, Georgia, I heard “the boot of a car” which we now know as the trunk. 1976 Rec. Herald (Washington Court House OH) 10 July 2/3, Patricia R. Hall, Cincinnati, said that a male subject used her car during Friday, and when it was returned . . , she discovered $190 missing from the boot of the car. 2002 DARE File neGA [Black], One victim . . was kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car—or, as he explained to a TV interviewer, he had been tied up and “put in the boot.” The speaker was an African American male, probably in his 30s or 40s, who spoke an unexceptional Georgia version of A[frican-]A[merican] V[ernacular]. Ibid KY, In the small Kentucky community, where I grew up, people always referred to the “trunk” of the car as the “boot.” I always thought it was the southern way of saying it, until I first went to college in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. It was there that my new friends laughed their heads off at hearing me say this. . . Since that time, I have never heard any other Kentuckians refer to it as a “boot” other than those who live in my little community. Ibid csOH, I’ve had students from very far south in Ohio (Portsmouth, Ironton) who also use [‘]boot.’ Ibid TX, “Boot” was/is?? widely used in Texas also. 2008 in 2016 DARE File—Internet SC, I grew up in S.C. We call the trunk of the car a boot. 2014 DARE File VA, Growing up in Augusta County, Virginia (Staunton area) I heard people speak of the boot of the car.
[b A luggage rack on a vehicle.
1935 AmSp 10.75 nwWY, Boot. Luggage carrier on the back of a bus.
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