A computer program that starts up a computer's operating system when the machine is turned on; the first software that runs when you boot a computer.
From 'boot' (to start/load, itself from 'bootstrap'), combined with 'loader' (software that loads code). 'Bootstrap' originally meant pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.
Bootloaders are a computer paradox—they have to load themselves into memory, like pulling yourself up by your bootstraps, which is literally impossible but somehow computers do it anyway!
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