Etymology Dictionary

FALTER,  to totter, stammer.  (F.,—L.)   M.E. falteren, faltren.   'Thy limmes faltren ay' = thy limbs ever tremble with weakness;' Chaucer, C. T. 5192.   'And nawþer faltered ne fel' = and he neither gave way nor fell; Gawayne and the Grene Knight, 430.   Formed from a base falt-, with frequentative suffix -er.—O.F. falter*, to fail, be deficient, not recorded.   Yet it occurs in Port. and Span. faltar, to be deficient, Ital. faltare, to be deficient; and is well represented in F. by the verbal sb. falte, a fault, answering to Port., Span. and Ital. falta, want, lack, defect, fault; so that to falter is merely 'to be at fault.'   See Fault.   ¶ Observe that O.F. falter would only give a M.E. form falt-en; the -er- in M.E. falt-er-en is an E. addition, to give the word a frequentative force; cf. the -le- in stumb-le, and the -er in stamm-er, stutt-er.   The old sense of to 'stumble,' to 'miss one's footing,' occurs late; 'his legges hath foltred' = the horse's legs have given way; Sir T. Elyot, The Gouernour, b. i. c. 17 (in Spec. of Eng. ed. Skeat, p. 197, l. 78).