English

Tumblr

Tumblr comes from English tumblelog.

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

Earliest quotation: 2007, Noam Cohen, The Global Sympathetic Audience: “What is different about “quick blogging” tools like Twitter…”

A compound of tumble + log

Proto-Germanic *tūmōną ‘to rotate’

Proto-West Germanic *tumbōn

Old English tumbian ‘to tumble’

Middle English tumben ‘to fall, tumble’

Middle English tumblen ‘to fall down’

Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂g- ‘to divide, distribute, allot’

Proto-Germanic *bōks ‘letter, written message, inscriptions carved into a flat object pressed together, “book”’

Proto-West Germanic *bōk ‘inscribed billet, letter’

Old English bōc ‘book’

Middle English bok ‘a document, especially if extensive and composed of bound pages’

English book

English logbook

English log

Every English word from English tumblelog

name A microblogging and social networking website founded in 2007.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.