Inherited from Middle French bouter, from Old French bouter (“to strike, push”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *bōtan (“to push, strike, beat”), from Proto-Germanic *bautaną (“to beat”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰewd- (“to beat, strike, hew”).
Cognate with Old High German bōzzan (“to beat”), Old English bēatan (“to thrash, beat”), Old Norse bauta (“to beat”). Compare also Spanish botar (“to bounce”), Italian buttare. More at beat.