The other day when Rick was having a problem with his cell phone (as usual), he said, "Maybe I need to re-boot it." I asked, does that mean you kick it or throw up on it?

It started me wondering where that term "boot" came from vis-a-vis computers and computerized things. I looked in my new, super-duper dictionary that has such complicated definitions it is no longer possible to figure out what anything really means -- no luck.

I hate to drag you cat sailors away from discussions of rigging and repairs, but it is a documented fact that sailors are much more computer literate and technologically "with it" than the general population, so I figured this was the best forum for getting an answer to my question about "booting."

P.S. I guess I should explain that I KNOW what it means to boot or reboot your computer. I just want to know how and why somebody came up with that particular term and how it fits into the definitions of "boot."