totter

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To walk or stand unsteadily, as if about to fall.

   The baby tottered across the room toward her mother.

2. 2
   verb

   To be weak and close to failing or collapsing.

   The struggling company tottered on the edge of bankruptcy.

3. 3
   noun

   An unsteady, shaky way of walking or moving.

   He crossed the deck with a drunken totter.

From Middle English totren, toteren, from earlier *tolteren (compare dialectal English tolter (“to struggle, flounder”); Scots tolter (“unstable, wonky”)), from Old English tealtrian (“to totter, vacillate”), from Proto-Germanic *taltrōną, a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *taltōną (“to sway, dangle, hesitate”), from Proto-Indo-European *del-, *dul- (“to shake, hesitate”). Cognate with Dutch touteren (“to tremble”), Norwegian dialectal totra (“to quiver, shake”), North Frisian talt, tolt (“unstable, shaky”). Related to tilt.

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