Etymology

stumble

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Today it means: A fall, trip or substantial misstep. Full definition →

Proto-Germanic *stam-
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The story

  1. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*stam-“to trip up; to stammer, stutter”
  2. English todaystumble

Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *stam- (“to trip up; to stammer, stutter”), thereby related to German stumm (“mute”), Dutch stom (“dumb”). Doublet of stammer. Also related to verb in Dutch stommelen (“to walk silently”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.