To regain command of oneself. The image conveyed by this term is of someone who has “fallen apart” and must be put back together bit by bit. A related term is to pull oneself up by the bootstraps, meaning to improve one’s lot by making a singular effort. The analogy here is to pulling on long boots by means of the straps or loops attached to them at the top, which requires a considerable effort. This term dates from the turn of the twentieth century (although bootstraps by then were far from commonplace). The metaphor gained currency in the late 1950s and early 1960s through Operation Bootstrap, a U.S. policy designed to help Puerto Rico gain economic viability by providing “bootstraps” (in the form of American mainland industry establishing factories there) whereby the island could “pull itself up.”