What does the term bootstrapping mean?

Oxford dictionary definition of bootstrapping.

"Procedure of using a fixed sequence of instructions to initiate the loading of furthur instructions and ultimately of a complete program (esp. the operating system); the initial fixed sequence of intructions used for this."

Here is an example of how the term, bootstrapping, is used in the field of computers:

(From: J. Hilton, Choosing and Using Your Home Computer.)
"The bootstraps job is simply to find the main DOS on the disk, and transfer it byte by byte into RAM, whereupon that DOS can take over and perform some far more sophisticated function."

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