trotter

From Middle English trottere, equivalent to trot +‎ -er.

• Rhymes: -ɒtə(r)

trotter (plural trotters)

1. A horse trained for harness racing^W.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.

2. The foot of a pig, sheep, or other quadruped.
   • 1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 6, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     Finally Napoleon raised his trotter for silence and announced that he had already made all the arrangements.

From Middle French trotter, from Old French trotter, troter (“to go, trot”), from Medieval Latin *trottāre, *trotāre (“to go”), from Frankish *trottōn (“to go, run”), from Proto-Germanic *trudōną, *trudaną, *tradjaną (“to go, step, tread”), from Proto-Indo-European *dreu-, *derə-, *drā- (“to run, escape”). Cognates: see English trot. More at tread.

• IPA^(key): /tʁɔ.te/

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trotter

1. (usually of a horse) to trot

• trottiner
• trottoir

• “trotter” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).