As a verb, to reboot is to restart a computer or system so it begins working fresh again. As a noun, it can also mean a new version of a story, movie, or series that starts the story over.
From *re-* (again) + *boot*, from computing slang *to boot* meaning ‘to start up a computer’, itself from ‘bootstrap’ (to pull oneself up by one’s bootstraps). The idea is starting from the very beginning of the loading process.
When you reboot your device, you’re literally ‘booting it up again’ from zero—clearing out the messy temporary stuff in memory. Hollywood borrowed the tech term so they could ‘restart’ franchises like Batman or Spider-Man.
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