Etymology
Inherited from Old East Slavic сапогъ (sapogŭ). Obscure etymology:
- Per Vasmer, from сопе́ть (sopétʹ) + -ог (-og), compare сопе́ль (sopélʹ) 'wind instrument', 'pipe'. The modern Russian сапо́г means shoes with a high top, what explains the similarity with the pipe. This etymology encounters phonetic difficulties if we take into account сопе́ть (sopet') as a source, because Old East Slavic or Old Church Slavonic don't have the form *сопогъ.
- Per Menges, Vahros and Trubachyov, from Turkic languages, compare Proto-Turkic *sараɣ-, *sарuɣ- 'shafted shoes', modern Turkic sap 'stem'. This etymology has the same phonetic problems as Vasmer's etymology. In this case, it should be *сопагъ (compare това́р (továr) from Turkic tavar or колпа́к (kolpák) from Turkic kalpak) or *сопугъ.[1] Semantic difficulties also arise, in Old Church Slavonic it means 'sandals', 'shoes with tops no higher than the ankles', Turkic source originally suggests high-top shoes.[2]
- Per Lvov, from *sapati 'to tie, to bind'. According to Lvov and Semyonov, the original meaning is 'puttee, shoes, sandals',[3][4] compare dialectal сап (sap) 'fetters', colloquial заса́пить (zasápitʹ) 'tie in a knot'. In this case сапо́г from сап (sap) + -ог (-og).
References
Izmail Sreznevsky. Materials for the Dictionary of the Old Russian Language on the Basis of Written Records.
Further reading
- Vasmer, Max (1964–1973) “сапог”, in Oleg Trubachyov, transl., Этимологический словарь русского языка [Etymological Dictionary of the Russian Language] (in Russian), Moscow: Progress
