To give Webster a hand, it's pronounced "saybo"--like French for "it's pretty", or a three-year-old talking about Luke Skywalker's weapon of choice. A sabot is also the little stool (well, approximately 2 meters in diameter) that a cold launched missile sits on before launch. In some systems, the sabot contains the pancake motor that ejects the missile from the launch canister; in other systems, it acts as simply as a piston ring to seal in the delicious juices--I mean, the rapidly expanding toxic gases--from below and to propel the missile up, up, and away.

Sa`bot" (?), n. [F.]

1.

A kind of wooden shoe worn by the peasantry in France, Belgium, Sweden, and some other European countries.

2. Mil.

A thick, circular disk of wood, to which the cartridge bag and projectile are attached, in fixed ammunition for cannon; also, a piece of soft metal attached to a projectile to take the groove of the rifling.

© Webster 1913.