Sabotage: Certain words are etymological mysteries that are tantalizingly close to solution. For example, we're pretty sure that the word "sabotage" comes from the French word "sabot." Traditionally, a sabot was a wooden shoe, and as the story goes, French luddites threw their shoes into industrial looms. A sabot can also be a railway track clamp, and we do know that during a 1910 rail strike, these were pulled out to disrupt commuters. But the word might also be slang for ...

( Back to Article )