different between falter vs faller

English

Alternative forms

• faulter (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English falteren (“to stagger”), further origin unknown. Possibly from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse faltrask (“be encumbered”). May also be a frequentative of fold, although the change from d to t is unusual.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?f??lt?(r)/, /?f?lt?(r)/

Noun

falter

1. unsteadiness.

Translations

Verb

falter (third-person singular simple present falters, present participle faltering, simple past and past participle faltered)

1. To waver or be unsteady; to weaken or trail off.
   • 1672, Richard Wiseman, A Treatise of Wounds

     He found his legs falter.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To stammer; to utter with hesitation, or in a weak and trembling manner.
   • 1807, Lord Byron, Childish Recollections

     And here he faltered forth his last farewell.
3. To fail in distinctness or regularity of exercise; said of the mind or of thought.
   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening

     Here indeed the power of distinctly conceiving of space and distance falters.

4. To stumble.
5. (figuratively) To lose faith or vigor; to doubt or abandon (a cause).

   • And remember, comrades, your resolution must never falter.

6. To hesitate in purpose or action.
7. To cleanse or sift, as barley.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Translations

References

English

Etymology

fall +? -er

Noun

faller (plural fallers)

1. One who falls.
   • 1920, The Green Book Magazine (volume 23, page 75)

     I've said that you girls on this side were not very whole-hearted fallers-in-love.

   • 2011, Dana Stabenow, Hunter's Moon

     Most trippers and fallers I know fall forward, but it could have happened. He could have gone out for a midnight walk, he could have wanted to commune with the moon from the middle of the log, he could have tripped and fallen backward […]

   • 2016, Michael P. Burke, Forensic Pathology of Fractures and Mechanisms of Injury

     Significantly more cervical spine injuries were seen in fallers as opposed to jumpers.

2. A fruit that falls from the tree, rather than being picked.
3. (engineering) A part which acts by falling, such as a stamp in a fulling mill, or the device in a spinning machine to arrest motion when a thread breaks.

Derived terms

• backfaller
• counter-faller
• off-faller

Anagrams

• Lafler, fellar, refall

Catalan

Adjective

faller (feminine fallera, masculine plural fallers, feminine plural falleres)

1. Of or relating to The Falles

Noun

faller m (plural fallers)

1. Someone taking part in The Falles

Norman

Etymology

From Old French faloir, from an earlier *falleir, from Latin fall?, fallere, from Proto-Indo-European *g?wel- (“to lie, deceive”).

Pronunciation

Verb

faller

1. (Jersey, impersonal) to be necessary

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

faller

1. present tense of falle

Swedish

Pronunciation

Verb

faller

1. present tense of falla.