Hello! “Sabotage” has a fascinating origin that traces back to labor movements and tool usage.

The term originates from the French word sabot, meaning “wooden shoe” (like a clog). In the 19th century, French workers used wooden shoes, or sabots, to disrupt industrial machines that threatened their jobs. There’s a debated but interesting story that some workers threw their sabots into machines to jam the gears, which inspired the term “sabotage.” Although this act of jamming machines may be more myth than historical fact, the word “sabotage” indeed grew to mean intentional disruption, especially in work settings.

By the early 20th century, “sabotage” evolved to mean deliberate damage or obstruction, and it spread to other languages, including English, where it’s commonly used to describe various acts of intentional interference or destruction.