bootstrap, v.
(buːtstræp)
[f. boot-strap, bootstrap n.]
1. trans. To make use of existing resources or capabilities to raise (oneself) to a new situation or state; to modify or improve by making use of what is already present. More recently, as transf. use of sense 2. Usu. refl. (Chiefly in technical contexts.)
| 1958 Communications Assoc. Computing Machinery I. 22 Some interesting techniques have been developed whereby it would be possible for a new computer group to ‘boot-strap’ itself into a position of automatic programming capability upon receiving a new machine. 1960 Ibid. III. 607/1 In December, 1958, a hand-coded version of Neliac..compiled its first rudimentary code for the Remington Rand Univac Countess. By May 1959 it..was being used to ‘bootstrap’ itself, i.e., an improved version is written in Neliac language..and then recompiled by itself. 1983 Sci. Amer. May 107/2 The prospect of bootstrapping the entire process of data analysis offers hope that an extremely difficult problem will begin to yield. 1983 Fortune 30 May 59/2 Using American Jet's earnings for that year as collateral, Paulson bootstrapped his way into bank loans to buy..the then-unprofitable corporate-jet subsidiary of Grumman Corp. 1983 New Scientist 23 June 873/2 This profound question of a self-creating Universe which somehow bootstraps itself into existence using quantum indeterminism as the straps. |
2. Computing. = boot v.4 1.
| 1962 [implied at bootstrapping vbl. n.] 1978 Pract. Computing July–Aug. 42/3 The system is boot-strapped as soon as the power is turned on. 1984 Simon & Matthews Mastering Electron vii. 148 If such a system crashes it has to be ‘bootstrapped’ from the disc to start it again. |
Hence ˈbootstrapping vbl. n.
| 1960 Aeroplane XCVIII. 147/2 The particular process is not, strictly speaking, ‘bootstrapping’, which in rocket parlance merely means that the engine runs as a self-contained unit, using its own propellents in one way or another to drive its pumps. 1962 Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors xiii. 317 The process of multiplying the apparent value of a resistance by applying nearly equal signal voltages to each end is known as ‘bootstrapping’. |