Trindling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Moving steadily along by rolling on wheels or small rollers, as a cart or barrel might
2. Rolling forward in a slow, heavy way, the way a wheeled load or cask travels over a surface
3. Going along by turning over and over on wheels, in the manner of a heavy object being rolled

Etymology: The verb "trindle" is a fairly obscure one, and its story runs back to a simple idea: something that turns round. Its ancestor in Old English, "tryndel," meant a circle, ring, or hoop, and in Middle English the same root produced "trindel," a wheel or roller. The verb grew from that sense of rolling, so to trindle is to roll or move along in a circular, rotating way, as a wheel does. The root goes back further still, to a Proto-West Germanic "*trundil," meaning ring or hoop, which is also the source of the Low German "tründeln," to roll. "Trend," meaning to turn or bend in a particular direction, comes from the same ancestry, so the two words are close relatives that took different paths. The "-le" ending is a common English suffix that turns a base into a repeated or diminutive action, which is why "trindle" describes rolling or spinning gently rather than a single sudden turn.