Did you know for instance that Sabotage is supposed to derive from the tendency of striking workers to damage machinery by throwing shoes into it? - sabot being an old French word for a wooden shoe.

Cool. I love etymological info like this.

Nice one thanks for this.

Very cool

It's hard to find a major language English hasn't borrowed from. I can think of dozens of examples without opening a book or surfing the web.

"An entomologist is someone who studies bugs. An etymologist is someone who knows the difference between an entomologist and an etymologist."

-- The Unknown Linguist

Sabotage is indeed related to "sabot" which is indeed a clog in french. But this is folk etymology. Don't believe wikipedia until i update the article (which i will do right now). The verb "saboter" is actually much older (at least 1808). The shifts in meaning go more like this :
1 Sabot = clog (noun).
2 Sabot = Someone wearing clogs i.e. a peasant first, then an unsophisticated person, then a clumsy one. (still noun)
3 Travailler comme un sabot = Work like a "sabot" (clumsy person) = botch, work sloppily. (verb)
4 Saboter = botch the work on purpose. (verb)

Love this!

nobelprize4peace, that's very informative, thanks.
one of the reasons i love etymology is that it demonstrates the futility of the attempt of ownership. language reflects the wonderful flowing nature of much of our life, even if we don't regularly pause to think of it as such.