falter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English falteren (“to stagger, totter; to tremble; to stammer”),^[2][3][4][1] of obscure origin.^[5][6][7][8] Many dictionaries suggest a Scandinavian source and compare Old Norse faltrask (“to be burdened, hesitate, be troubled or puzzled”),^{[9][10][3][2][8]} or the Icelandic form of the same word,^[11][12] with Merriam-Webster adding Faroese fjaltra (“to tremble”).^[11] Others take it as a frequentative formed irregularly from falden (“to fold up, give way, fail”), that is fold,^[9][10][13] which could be said of failing legs and tongue, with the ending of totter;^[14][15] Wiktionary notes that the change from d to t is unusual.^[1] Weekley thought the form may have been influenced by fault,^[13] but the OED rejects a link with fault because falter has always been written and, in the dialects, pronounced with the l, while the l of fault is a late learned insertion.^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the limbs, to give way or tremble: Chaucer's Man of Law's Tale, about 1386 ("thy lymes faltren ay").^[5][2][16] Barnhart dates the word to about 1390, in the Canterbury Tales, with the senses "stumble, stagger, tremble".^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the verb was first physical: of a person, to stagger or stumble, as in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (about 1400), and of the limbs, to shake or give way.^[2][5] From about 1440 it was also used of the tongue, to stammer, glossing Latin cespitare in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[2][5] Hoad dates the sense "give way, waver" to the 16th century,^[6] and the OED's first record of wavering in purpose or courage is from Bishop Fisher in 1521.^[5] Later the verb was used of inanimate things that tremble or move irresolutely (1745), of uttering words hesitantly, in falter out (1762) and with the quoted words as object (1851, Tennyson), and in Dorset dialect of a failing crop (1863).^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as to hesitate in speech, and to fail in an act of the body or of the understanding.^[17] In the dialects of the West Midlands and the Southwest it also meant to fail in health or show signs of age.^[18] The noun, a faltering or a quaver, is recorded from 1834.^[5][11]

Timeline

• c. 1386 – of the limbs, to give way, tremble.^[5][2]
• c. 1400 – of a person, to stagger, stumble.^[5][2]
• c. 1440 – to stammer.^[5][2]
• 1521 – to waver, lose resolve.^[5]
• 1745 – of things, to tremble, move unsteadily.^[5]
• 1762 – falter out, to utter haltingly.^[5]
• 1834 – noun, a faltering, a quaver.^[5][11]
• 1851 – transitive, with the words spoken as object.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To lose strength, purpose or momentum; to waver or hesitate: Her resolve never faltered.^[12][11][5]
2. To move unsteadily; to stumble or stagger.^[12][11][5]
3. To speak hesitantly or brokenly; to stammer; also, to utter something in this way: He faltered a few words of thanks.^[12][11][5]
4. Of things, to tremble or move as if hesitating.^[5][11]

Noun

1. An act of faltering; unsteadiness or hesitation.^[12][11][5]
2. A quavering sound, as in the voice.^[11][12][5]

Word family

• falterer
• falteringly

Related words

• fold
• totter

Usage notes

A separate dialect verb falter, to thresh barley a second time to clean off the awns, is recorded from 1601;^[5][14] the OED and the Shorter Oxford derive it, with a query, from Old French fautrer (“to strike, beat”),^[5][14] and Johnson (1755) gave it as a rustic word for "to sift, to cleanse".^[17] The OED also has a rare 15th-century verb falter, to become entangled, perhaps a variant of felter.^[5][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
14. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
18. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)