Sabotage

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  1. Matthew Choate:

    I’d learned the original explanation of the origins of the word ‘sabotage’ mentioned not from twitter or Facebook but from my poli-sci professor in the late 80’s.
    He taught us that the shoes ‘sabots’ were thrown into the machines to stop them from running during a revolt.
    How did you come to your conclusion? I have a lot of late night, drunken conversations to take back if I’ve been wrong all these years

  2. Eric:

    The clogs in the machine etymology is a fanciful late 20th century invention – it has no origin in historical studies of the word which are based on the French verb saboter, as explained above. The clog in the machine derivation came into popular use because it was used in a Star Trek film.

  3. JP:

    Hahaha!
    I’m watching that Star Trek movie (Undiscovered Country) right now and that’s why I’m here!