Now dial. Forms: 5–7 titer, 7 tyter, tytter, tetter, 8–9 titter. [ME. titer, implied in titering; = ON. titra to shake, shiver, OHG. zittarôn (G. zittern):—OTeut. *titrôjan; not found outside Teutonic. Cf. TEETER.]
1. intr. To move unsteadily, as if about to fall; to totter, reel; to sway to and fro.
c. 1374. [see tittering below].
a. 1618. Raleigh, Seat Govt. (1651), 60. So would the other [i.e., Kings’ Crowns] easily tytter were they not fastened on their heads, with the strong chains of Civil Justice and Martial Discipline.
1644. G. Plattes, in Hartlib’s Legacy (1655), 198. Then the floor of the sellar will rise up, and tetter and swim like a bog-mere.
1798. Frere & Canning, Loves of Triangles, I. 26, in Anti-Jacobin, 16 April (1852), 107. Fair sylphish forms … Wave the gay wreath, and titter as they prance.
1904. Eng. Dial. Dict., s.v. (Worc.) Take care, the table titters.
2. intr. To see-saw. See also TITTER-TOTTER.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Titter, to ride on each end of a balanced plank. Otherwise ‘titter-cum-totter.’
1854. Miss Baker, Northpt. Gl., Titter, to ride on a balanced plank.
Hence Tittering vbl. sb., the action of tottering or swaying; unsteady movement; fig. hesitation, vacillation; ppl. a. that totters or sways about.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 1695 (1744), (Campsall MS.). In titeryng and pursuyte and delayes The folk deuyne at waggynge of a stre.
1661. K. W., Conf. Charac., Juryman Rustick (1860), 37. Then he gallops a titering pace home.
1739. J. Spence, Lett., 23 Dec., in Academy, 20 Feb. (1875), 191/3. So full of tittering and uncertainty in his carriage.
