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Bible Encyclopedias
Tumbler
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or that which "tumbles," i.e. falls or rolls over or down. The 0. Eng. tumbiare, of which Mid. Eng. tumblere is a frequentative farm, appears also in Du. tuimelen, Ger. taumeln, to stagger, tumble about; Fr. tomber, to fall, is Teutonic in origin. As applied to a person, "'tumbler" is another word for an acrobat, one who shows his agility by turning somersaults, standing on his head, walking or dancing on his hands, &c. It is interesting to note that Herodias' daughter Salome is described as a tumbestere in Harl. MS., 1701, f. 8, quoted by Halliwell (Diet. of Archaic Words), and in the margin of Wycliffe's Bible (Matt. xiv. 6) tumblide is given as a variant of daunside (danced). Similarly, in early pictures of her dancing before Herod, she is represented sometimes as standing on her head. The common drinking-glass known as a "tumbler," which now is the name given to a plain cylindrical glass without a stem or foot, was originally a glass with a rounded or pointed base, which could only stand on being emptied and inverted (see Drinking Vessels, Plate I., fig. 3).
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Tumbler'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/t/tumbler.html. 1910.
