different between rickety vs unsubstantial

English

Perhaps from Ancient Greek ????? (rhákhis, “backbone”).

rickety (comparative ricketier, superlative ricketiest)

Of an object: not strong or sturdy, as because of poor construction or upkeep; not safe or secure.
He hesitated about climbing such a small, rickety ladder.
Of a person: feeble in the joints; tottering.
The rickety old man hardly managed to climb the stairs.
Affected with or suffering from rickets.

(not held or fixed securely and likely to fall over): precarious, unsteady, shaky, tottering, unsafe, unstable, wobbly, giddy

From un- +? substantial.

unsubstantial (comparative more unsubstantial, superlative most unsubstantial)

(now rare) Insubstantial.
- 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, vol. III, ch. 89:
  “They are (said he) meer phantoms of ignorance and credulity, swelled up in the repetition, like those unsubstantial bubbles which the boys blow up in sopasuds with a tobacco pipe.”

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