totter

Etymology

Came into English from Middle English totren, toteren, from an earlier *tolteren (compare dialectal English tolter (“to struggle, flounder”); Scots tolter (“unstable, wonky”)), which in turn came 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”). It is cognate with Dutch touteren (“to tremble”), Norwegian dialectal totra (“to quiver, shake”), and North Frisian talt, tolt (“unstable, shaky”), and is related to tilt.