The Evolution of Sabot

The term sabot may have first been introduced into English in a 1607 translation from French: "wooden shoes," readers were informed, are "properly called sabots." The gun-related sense appeared in the mid-1800s with the invention of a wooden gizmo that kept gun shells from shifting in the gun barrel. Apparently, someone thought the device resembled a wooden shoe and named it sabot (with later generations of this device carrying on the name). Another kind of French sabot—a metal "shoe" used to secure rails to railway ties—is said to be the origin of the word sabotage, from workers destroying the sabots during a French railway strike in the early 1900s. The word sabot is probably related to savate, a Middle French word for an old shoe.

Examples of sabot in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web But the park’s star flora is a rare, spectacular orchid: the sabot de Vénus, or Venus slipper. — National Geographic, 1 Sep. 2020 He was photographed in 1862 wearing sabots, the wooden clogs that were traditional peasant footwear. — Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 27 Feb. 2020 Starts at $37 per 20; sigsauer.com A new addition to the Barnes VOR-TX line of ammunition are the Expander Tipped sabot-slug shotshells in 20 and 12-gauge. — Richard Mann, Field & Stream, 22 Jan. 2020 The sabot falls away as the dart exits the barrel and heads downrange toward its target. — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 25 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'sabot.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.