tumble: [13] Tumble was borrowed from Middle Low German tummelen, which has other relatives in modern German tummeln ‘bustle, hurry’ and taumeln ‘reel, stagger’. All were formed from a base that also found its way into the Romance languages, producing French tomber ‘fall’ (source of English tumbrel [14], which in Old French denoted a ‘chute’ or ‘cart that could be tipped up’) and Italian tombolare ‘tumble, turn somersaults’ (source of English tombola [19]).
The derivative tumbler [14] originally denoted an ‘acrobat’; the application to a ‘drinking glass’, which emerged in the mid 17th century, comes from the fact that such glasses were originally made with rounded bottoms, so that they could not be put down until they were empty. => tombola
tumble (n.)
"accidental fall," 1716, from tumble (v.). Earlier as "disorder, confusion" (1630s).
tumble (v.)
c. 1300, "to perform as an acrobat," also "to fall down," perhaps from a frequentative form of Old English tumbian "dance about, tumble, leap." This is of unknown origin but apparently related to Middle Low German tummelen "to turn, dance," Dutch tuimelen "to tumble," Old High German tumon, German taumeln "to turn, reel." Transitive sense from late 14c. Related: Tumbled; tumbling.
