totter

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English toteren (“to swing to and fro”),^[2][3][4] a word of uncertain origin.^[5][3][4] The OED observes that it has the form of a frequentative from a stem tot- expressing unstable movement, and suggests an early Scandinavian source, comparing dialectal Norwegian totra (“to quiver, shake”), tutra and dialectal Swedish tuttra;^[5][3][4][6] the MED makes the same comparison but calls the origin unknown.^[2] The Shorter Oxford, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Hoad derive it instead from Middle Dutch touteren (“to swing”),^[7][8][9] which the OED finds hard to connect in its sounds.^[5] Old English tealtrian (“to totter, stagger”) is compared too: Merriam-Webster calls the two perhaps akin,^[10] Collins sees it as a perhaps partial source,^[11] and Barnhart thinks the English verb was associated with it but probably did not develop from it.^[3] Skeat tied the word to dialectal tolter and tulten (“to tilt”),^[12] and Klein took it as probably imitative.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

To swing or sway to and fro: about 1200, in Vices and Virtues,^[5][3] of someone sitting with swinging feet (mid fote sitten toterinde).^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was simply swinging, with a figurative use for wavering or vacillating that lasted until 1616.^[5] Its most specific use was swinging from the gallows, being hanged, which the OED records from about 1515;^[5] Weekley quotes Howard in 1512, who built a pair of gallows where he feared some woll towter tomorrow.^[14] Another use was the game of see-saw, in Palsgrave (1530).^[5] A related noun, a swing or a board hung from two ropes, is recorded from before 1387 and lasted until 1552,^[5][3] and Etymonline also gives totir, a springboard or see-saw, from the mid-14th century.^[4] About 1400 the verb was applied to something rocking on its base as if about to collapse,^[5][4] and Johnson (1755) defined it only in this way: "to shake so as to threaten a fall".^[15] The now dominant sense, walking with shaky, unsteady steps, appears only in 1602, in Marston.^[5][3] The noun for the action of tottering followed in 1747.^[5][3] In dialect, totter-grass and totter-bobs (south-west Lincolnshire) were the quaking grass, and a totter-bog (Cumberland, Westmorland, West Yorkshire) was a quaking bog.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – to swing or sway to and fro.^[5][3][4]
• before 1387 – noun, a swing, a board hung from two ropes (obsolete by 1552).^[5][3]
• c. 1400 – to rock or shake on its base; also to toss, as a ship on the waves (obsolete by 1596).^[5][4]
• c. 1515 – to swing from the gallows, to be hanged (obsolete by 1640).^[5]
• 1530 – to play at see-saw.^[5]
• 1602 – to walk with unsteady steps.^[5][3]
• 1613 – transitive, to make something shake or unstable (obsolete by 1693).^[5]
• before 1616 – figurative, in Shakespeare's Tempest.^[5]
• 1747 – noun, the action of tottering, an unsteady gait.^[5][3][10]
• 1846 – transitive, to make one's way totteringly.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To walk or move with shaky, unsteady steps, as from old age or weakness; to stagger: The old sailor tottered down the gangway.^[11][5]
2. To sway or rock as if about to fall: The stack of crates tottered and then collapsed.^[11][10][5]
3. To be unstable or close to failure: The regime was tottering after the strikes.^[11][10][7]
4. (obsolete, c. 1200–1616) To swing to and fro; to waver or vacillate.^[5][10][7]
5. (obsolete, c. 1515–1640) To be hanged.^[5][7]
6. (obsolete, 1613–1693) To make something shake or unstable.^[5][7]

Noun

1. An unsteady movement or gait; the act of tottering.^[11][10][5]
2. (New England) A seesaw.^[10]
3. (obsolete, before 1387–1552) A swing.^[5][7]

Word family

• totterer
• tottery
• teeter-totter
• tottering

Related words

• tilt

Usage notes

Totter, a rag-and-bone collector, recorded from 1891, is a noun with a separate source: it is formed from tot and -er.^[5][7][17]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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 c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
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 z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
14. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com