Aphorisms and Idioms: Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps.

T
hese days, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps means to succeed on your own, through sheer will and hard work. It originally meant something quite different, but what?

We may not be sure what bootstraps actually are, but we know we’re supposed to stop whining, and pull ourselves up by them. These days, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps means to succeed on your own, through sheer will and hard work.

It’s a phrase that’s made the rounds on social media recently, when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pointed out that pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is an impossible feat. And people really got steamed when she said “the whole thing is a joke.”[1] She took a lot of flak for saying that, but she’s absolutely right. The expression was indeed originally intended as sarcasm to describe an absurd and futile act.

Origin Of The Phrase
Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps

The earliest documented use of this aphorism is from a Vermont newspaper in 1834. In response to one Nimrod Murphree’s claim to have discovered perpetual motion, which  the laws of thermodynamics makes impossible.[2] The article bitingly speculated that Murphree could probably raise himself over “a barn yard fence by the straps of his boots” too.[3].

The phrase also appears in a 19th-century physics textbook titled Popular Physics by Joel Dorman Steele, appearing in a list of practical questions…  “Why can not a man lift himself by pulling up on his boot-straps?” [4]

Interestingly, our current understanding of pulling oneself up by our bootstraps (which is not requiring help from others) is the basis for the term “booting up” a computer. In this case, it refers to a process that automatically loads and executes commands. [5]

So the next time someone tells you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, remember it’s only really possible if you’re a computer.

#Aphorisms Unplugged

Endnotes:

[1] Mohamed, Theron. “‘It’s a physical impossibility to lift yourself up by a bootstrap’: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez argues everyone needs help to succeed.” Feb. 7, 2020. Businessinsider.com; AOC bootstrap meme.

[2] Pollick, Michael. “Why Is Perpetual Motion Considered To Be Impossible?” All the Science. May 21, 2024.

[3] The Vermont Courier. Woodstock, Vermont. Oct. 3, 1834, pg 3.

[4] Steele, Joel Dorman. Popular Physics.  New York: American Book, 1888  Pg 37.

[5] “Bootstrap.” TechTerms.com

Image:

Origin of Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps: Photo by Lanju Fotografie on Unsplash