Jackboot

Jackboots have been associated popularly with totalitarianism, since they were worn by German military and paramilitary forces in the run-up to and during the Second World War.

[citation needed] The ‘wings’ (backward projections) on these high boots particularly protected a rider's knee-joint from a sword blow.

[9] An etymological source not derived from the cavalry jackboot has been suggested as from the word jack, jacket or jerkin, as a common garment worn by the peasantry.

[10] The boots are associated popularly with fascism, particularly Nazism, as they were worn by the Sturmabteilung and later the field forces of the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS as part of the World War II German uniform before and even after Germany experienced leather shortages.

The word is used often in English as a metonym and a synecdoche for totalitarianism, particularly fascism, although jackboots and similar types of footwear have been worn by various British regiments since the 18th century (see Wellington boot, origins).