kilter

kilter

English

WOTD – 26 April 2022

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪltə/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɪltɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪltə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: kilt‧er

Etymology 1

A variant of dialectal kelter (“good condition, order”), of unknown origin;[1] possibly related to kilt (“to gather up (skirts) around the body”) (cognate with Danish kilte (“to tuck”)), or Scots kilt (“proper way of doing something, knack”)[2] (probably from kilt (“a slope; a tilt”), possibly a variant of English tilt).[3] In the 19th century, kelter was the more common form in the United Kingdom, while kilter was more common in the United States. Due to the influence of the latter, kilter is now the more prevalent form in all English varieties.[4]

Noun

kilter (uncountable)

1. (chiefly in the negative) Chiefly in out of kilter: (good) condition, form, or order; fettle. [from 17th c.]

   not in kilter

   • 1890, Charles Erskine, chapter V, in Twenty Years before the Mast: […], Boston, Mass.: Published by the author, OCLC 13815425, page 72:

     [T]hey are either round-shouldered, knock-kneed, bow-legged, or parrot-toed; some are also badly cross-eyed. It seems as if they can see two different ways at the same time. Jack says they are lop-sided and out of kilter altogether.

   • 1909, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Man from Eldorado”, in Ballads of a Cheechako, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, OCLC 2068144, part I, stanza 2, page 71:

     [H]e lived on tinned tomatoes, beef embalmed and sourdough bread, / On rusty beans and bacon furred with mould; / His stomach’s out of kilter and his system full of lead, / But it's over, and his poke is full of gold.

Alternative forms

• kelter (archaic)

Derived terms

• off-kilter
• out of kilter

Translations

(good) condition, form, or order

Bulgarian: порядък (bg) m (porjadǎk), изправност (bg) f (izpravnost) Chinese: Mandarin: 良好狀態／良好状态 (liánghǎozhuàngtài) German: Einklang (de) m, Ordnung (de) f, Zustand (de) m

Etymology 2

Probably a variant of dialectal kelter (“odds and ends; litter, rubbish”);[5][6] further etymology unknown.

Noun

kilter (plural kilters)

1. (card games, chiefly poker) A hand of playing cards which is useless.

Translations

hand of playing cards which is useless

References

1. Joseph Wright, editor (1902), “KELTER, sb.¹ and v.¹”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume III (H–L), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, OCLC 81937840, page 415, column 2.
2. “‡ kilt, v.³, n.³”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, OCLC 57069714, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
3. “kilt, v.², n.²”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, OCLC 57069714, reproduced from W[illiam] Grant and D[avid] D. Murison, editors, The Scottish National Dictionary, Edinburgh: Scottish National Dictionary Association, 1931–1976, →OCLC.
4. “kilter, n.¹”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022; “kilter, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
5. Joseph Wright, editor (1902), “KELTER, sb.²”, in The English Dialect Dictionary: […], volume III (H–L), London: Henry Frowde, […], publisher to the English Dialect Society, […]; New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, OCLC 81937840, page 416, column 1.
6. “kilter, n.²”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2022.

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “kilter”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• kirtle