Quote Originally Posted by James
What a delightful thought-charging into the fray crying that fearsome battle cry of 'Wooden Shoe': would the sabot AT come when the shoe is removed?

James
The connection comes from 19th century artillery rounds, James. During the American Civil War, artillery used "fixed ammunition", which consisted of the round itself, attached to a wooden block with tin straps, and then a flannel powder bag, which contained the black powder -- the wooden block was known as a "sabot", which is French for "wooden shoe", as you mentioned.

It is also the root word for "sabotage", since factory workers in Europe would throw the shoes into machinery to "sabotage" it and slow down or stop production, at least according to one origin of the word.

Cheers,

Todd