原指獎賞，詞源不詳。詞義受boot（益處）影響。詞義由獎賞到戰利品可參照英法16，17世紀官方文件letter of marque, 私掠許可證。當時英法政府為發展海上力量，打擊對方，鼓勵民船海盜船可以對過往商船進行合法搶劫，所掠財物部分作為獎賞。
英文詞源
booty
booty: [15] Booty has no connection with boots. It came into English as butin (it did not finally lose its n until the 18th century), a borrowing from Old French butin, but Old French had got it from Middle Low German būte ‘exchange’ (whence German beute and Dutch buit ‘loot’), pointing to a prehistoric Germanic source *būtiōn. => filibuster, freebooter
booty (n.)
"plunder, gain, profit," mid-15c., from Old French butin "booty" (14c.), from a Germanic source akin to Middle Low German bute "exchange." Influenced in form and sense by boot (n.2) and in form by nouns ending in -y. Meaning "female body considered as a sex object" is 1920s, black slang.
雙語例句
1. Troops destroyed the capital and confiscated many works of art as war booty.
軍隊摧毀了這座都城，並把大量藝術品收繳為戰利品。
來自柯林斯例句
2. It is impossible yet to estimate booty and war material capured.