Sabotage
/ˈsæbəˌtɑːʒ/noun
Deliberate destruction, disruption, or obstruction of something.
Did you know?The popular story that French workers threw wooden shoes called sabots into machines is debated by historians, but the word did emerge in French around the early 1900s with the sense of deliberate industrial wrecking.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*skab-
“to cut, scrape, or shape”
Late Latin
Latin
scabellum
“a small shoe or sandal”
Old French
Old French
sabot
“a wooden shoe or clog”
19th Century
French
saboter
“to clatter in wooden shoes; later, to bungledly work or spoil”
Early 20th Century
French
sabotage
“deliberate wrecking or obstruction, especially of industrial work”
1907
English
sabotage
“deliberate destruction or obstruction”