Английский Этимологический словарь - sabotage (n.)

- 1910, from Fr. sabotage, from saboter "to sabotage, bungle," lit. "walk noisily," from sabot "wooden shoe," altered (by association with O.Fr. bot "boot") from M.Fr. savate "old shoe," from an unidentified source that also produced similar words in O.Prov., Port., Sp., It., Arabic and Basque. The verb is 1918 in Eng., from the noun. The traditional story that the modern meaning derives from strikers' supposed tactic of throwing old shoes into machinery is not supported by the etymology. Saboteur is 1921, a borrowing from Fr.