system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
I refuse to take shit about this from people who call a car’s trunk a boot.
gpt
“In Britain during the time before cars and subsequently on early car designs a coachman, charged with driving the vehicle – whether that be the horse pulling a carriage or perhaps an automobile, would need to take some items with him (for it would inevitably be a man in those days), and would generally sit or stand on a locker containing his boots – much-needed sturdy footwear to change into for the inevitable repairs to the carriage or automobile whilst on appalling early roads built mainly for hooves rather that wheels. Keeping these boots and other things in the receptacle mean it was named the boot locker – and, in time, simply the boot. As time went on and coachmen were not needed, the boot was still very handy and a crucial part of a desirable carriage design.

On the other side of the Atlantic something similar was happening, it’s just that in the early days the item was carrying more than just boots, so tended to be an actual trunk attached to the car – usually at the back so as not to block the view ahead. In time, much like the ‘boot’, the ‘trunk’ became part of the car itself rather than a tacked-on afterthought. And the name stuck.”