Etymologically
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tumble

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Pronunciation

  • /ˈtʌmbl̩/[1]

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
  • 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