booty [LME] The original core meaning of booty was ‘to distribute’. Victors in war divided the booty stolen from an enemy among themselves. The modern American word meaning, first recorded for sexual intercourse [E20th], although this was probably a development of the more usual ‘a person’s bottom or buttocks’, is unconnected. It is probably an alteration of botty [M19th] in the same sense, itself an alteration of bottom, an Old English word used for the buttocks since the late 18th century. A sexy woman has been bootylicious since 1994, although the word was popularized by the single of the same name by Destiny’s Child in 2001.