the.com/tumble
Falling, but with better choreography.
means To fall or drop in an uncontrolled, rolling, bouncing way — or to cause something to do so.
from Tumble comes from Old English tumbian, 'to dance about, leap, turn somersaults,' related to the same Germanic root that gave German tummeln (to bustle or romp) — a distant cousin of English 'tumult.' The word always carried that sense of bodies out of order, dancers and acrobats pitching and whirling, long before it settled into its modern meaning of a plain, graceless fall. The grace, you could say, came first; the stumble came later.
- old meaning
- once meant to perform acrobatics, not fall
- tumbler drink
- named for cups that wobbled but would not tip
- tumbleweed
- literally a plant that tumbles to scatter seeds
- idiom use
- prices, dice, and hearts all tumble, never gracefully