Word.ws English Dictionary

boots theory

boots theory noun: an economic theory holding that poverty leads to increased long-term expenses, as poor people generally cannot afford well-made goods with high durability, only cheap, low-quality goods requiring frequent replacement.

Noun

boots theory (countable and uncountable, plural not attested)

  1. (no plural) An economic theory holding that poverty leads to increased long-term expenses, as poor people generally cannot afford well-made goods with high durability, only cheap, low-quality goods requiring frequent replacement.
    • But I have stopped getting the absolute cheapest, and Terry Pratchett was dead on with the boots theory and I wish I had spent more than £25 on my ill-fitting wedding dress that I had to tape to my boobs.2022 May 29, Kerry Hudson, “Struggling to pay at the supermarket till, I felt that childhood shame flooding back”, in The Guardian
    • For those who are equally unaware, boots theory explains how the wealthy can afford to live cheaply while the poor cannot.2023, Andrea Reupert, “'Boots' theory: why mental health initiatives need to address economic inequalities”, in Advances in Mental Health, volume 21, number 2, page 85

Origin of boots theory

Referencing a fictional theory advanced by the character Sam Vimes in Terry Prachett's novel Men at Arms (1993).

Questions about boots theory

What does boots theory mean?
Boots theory means an economic theory holding that poverty leads to increased long-term expenses, as poor people generally cannot afford well-made goods with high durability, only cheap, low-quality goods requiring frequent replacement.
What part of speech is boots theory?
Boots theory is a noun.

Words near boots theory in the dictionary

  1. boots and all
  2. boots and rallies
  3. boots on the ground
  4. boots one
  5. boots out
  6. boots theory
  7. boots up
  8. boots upstairs
  9. bootscan
  10. bootscaning
  11. bootscanning

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boots theory (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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