stolpern

German

Etymology

Iterative verb form of archaic stopeln (to be stiff), according to Kluge, an imitative verb similar to holpern; this is considered possible by Pfeifer, though he expresses skepticism.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈʃtɔlpɐn]
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation: stol‧pern

Verb

stolpern (weak, third-person singular present stolpert, past tense stolperte, past participle gestolpert, auxiliary sein)

  1. to stumble, to trip
    über etwas stolpernto trip over something
  2. (figurative, colloquial) to stumble across

Conjugation

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Wolfgang Pfeifer, editor (1993), “stolpern”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (in German), 2nd edition, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN

Further reading