The story
- Middle Low German · derived frompalter“rag, cloth”
- Middle English · inherited from*palter“rag, trifle, worthless thing”
- English todaypalter
Probably from Middle English *palter (“rag, trifle, worthless thing”), from Middle Low German palter (“rag, cloth”). More at paltry.
Words from the same roots
Middle Low Germanpalter all →
palterly
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.