tumble

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tumblen, also tomblen,^[2][3] in many dictionaries a frequentative from Middle English tumben (“to fall, leap, dance”),^{[4][5][6][7][2]} which is from Old English tumbian (“to dance about, leap, tumble”).^[4][8][9] Wiktionary traces the Old English verb to Proto-Germanic *tumbōną (“to turn, rotate”);^[10] Orel, who reconstructs it as a weak verb, compares Old Norse tumba (“to tumble”) and Old High German tumbōn, and thinks it imitative.^[11] Etymonline calls the Old English verb of unknown origin.^[4] The Oxford dictionaries take tumble instead from Middle Low German tummelen (“to turn, dance”),^{[12][13][14][15]} and the Middle English Dictionary thinks it probably comes from Anglo-Norman tumbler, comparing the Old English verb and Middle Dutch tumelen.^[3] Related forms are Old High German tumalōn and, with a long vowel, tūmōn (“to turn round, reel”), Middle High German tūmeln, German tummeln (“to bustle, hurry”) and taumeln (“to reel, stagger”), Dutch tuimelen, Danish tumle and Swedish tumla.^{[16][4][2][17]} The OED explains the short and long vowels as old variants, and derives Old French tumber, now French tomber (“to fall”), from a Low German verb; the French word probably influenced the English sense.^[16][13][17] Weekley thought the wide spread of the word pointed to an imitative origin, a sound like that of a flop or bump.^[17]

Earliest recorded meaning

To dance with postures and contortions, to perform as an acrobat: 1303, in Robert Mannyng's Handlyng Synne.^[16] Etymonline gives this sense and "to fall down helplessly" from about 1300,^[4] and Barnhart dates the senses "to roll over, fall suddenly" to probably before 1300, in Arthour and Merlin and Kyng Alisaunder, and the acrobatic sense to about 1325.^[2] The Old English verb glosses Latin saltavit in the Gospel story of the daughter of Herodias, who danced before Herod.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The acrobatic sense survives in tumbler, an acrobat, recorded from before 1340;^[2][17] the drinking glass called a tumbler (1664, in Pepys) was first made with a rounded or pointed bottom, so that it could not be set down until it was empty.^[2][15] The sense of falling helplessly is recorded from about 1330, the collapse of a building from about 1400, and the transitive sense, to throw down, from the 1480s in the OED and the mid-14th century in Etymonline.^[16][4] Rolling or tossing about on the ground, in water or in bed is recorded from before 1500,^[16] a pigeon throwing itself over backwards in flight from 1698,^[16] and the commercial slang sense of prices falling fast from 1886.^[16][4] In slang tumble meant to have sex with someone from 1512,^[18] while from the 1840s tumble to meant to understand;^[18] Weekley thought it came from understumble, a slang twist of understand.^[17] The noun appears first in 1634 for disorder, confusion or a tangled heap, then for an accidental fall in 1716 and a downfall in 1728;^[16][2][4] the American slang to take a tumble, to realize one's situation, is from 1877, and to give a tumble, to show some recognition, from 1921.^[16] In dialect the verb had forms such as tummle and tummel, and phrases like tumble kitty-cat, to turn head over heels.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English tumbian, to dance about.^[2]
• before 1300 – to roll over, fall suddenly.^[2]
• 1303 – to dance with contortions, to perform as an acrobat.^[16]
• c. 1330 – to fall helplessly or headlong.^[16]
• before 1340 – tumbler, an acrobat.^[2]
• c. 1400 – of a building, to collapse.^[16][4]
• 1487 – to throw down; to demolish.^[16]
• before 1500 – to roll or toss about.^[16]
• 1512 – slang, to have sex with.^[18]
• 1634 – noun, disorder, confusion; a tangled heap.^[16][2]
• 1716 – noun, an accidental fall.^[16][2][4]
• 1859 – slang tumble, to understand, in Hotten.^[18]
• 1877 – to take a tumble, to realize one's situation.^[16][4]
• 1886 – of prices, to fall rapidly.^[16][4]
• 1970 – of laundry, to be tossed in a tumble dryer.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fall suddenly, awkwardly or headlong: The cyclist tumbled into the ditch.^[20][5][16]
2. To cause to fall; to throw down or overthrow.^[20][16]
3. To roll, twist or toss about: The puppies tumbled about in the grass.^[20][16]
4. To perform somersaults and other acrobatic feats.^[20][5][16]
5. To move in a hasty, disorderly way: The pupils tumbled out of the classroom.^[20]
6. Of prices or values, to fall rapidly.^[16][4]
7. To disturb or rumple: She tumbled the pillows as she searched.^[20]
8. To polish stones in a tumbler.^[20]
9. (slang) To understand or realize; usually tumble to.^[18][20]

Noun

1. A fall, especially a sudden or accidental one: He took a bad tumble on the stairs.^[20][16]
2. An acrobatic feat, especially a somersault.^[20][16]
3. A confused or untidy heap; disorder: a tumble of rocks at the foot of the cliff.^[5][16]
4. (US slang) give someone a tumble: to show recognition of or interest in someone.^[16]

Word family

• tumbler
• tumblebug
• tumblehome
• tumbleset
• untumbled

Related words

• tumbrel
• tombola
• tumbleweed
• tumbledown
• rough-and-tumble

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b 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)
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
10. ^ Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
11. ^ Orel, Vladimir (2003), A Handbook of Germanic Etymology, Leiden / Boston: Brill
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
15. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
16. ^ 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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b c d e Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
18. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
19. ^ 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)
20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins