The story
- Proto-Germanic · inherited from*tūmōną“to turn round”
- Old English · inherited fromtumbian“to tumble, leap, dance”
- Middle English · inherited fromtumben
- English todaytumb
From Middle English tumben, tomben, from Old English tumbian (“to tumble, leap, dance”), from Proto-Germanic *tūmōną (“to turn round”). Cognate with Middle High German tumen (“to turn round”), Icelandic tumba (“to tumble”). See tumble.
Words from the same roots
Middle Englishtumben all →
tumble
Old Englishtumbian all →
tumble
Proto-Germanic*tūmōną all →
tummler
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.