The story
Compare bootstrap, pull oneself up by one's bootstraps, etc.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
bootstrap paradox
Today it means: A time travel paradox in which the consequences of an event in the future travel back in time and cause an event in the past or present, which in turn is among the causes of the first event, forming a causal loop in which each event is caused by the other. Full definition →