faulter

English

Etymology 1

From fault +‎ -er.

Noun

faulter (plural faulters)

1. (obsolete) One who commits a fault.
   • 1600, [Torquato Tasso], “(please specify |book=1 to 20)”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, →OCLC:

     Behold the faulter here in sight.

Etymology 2

Verb

faulter (third-person singular simple present faulters, present participle faultering, simple past and past participle faultered)

1. Archaic spelling of falter.
   • 1818, John Keats, Endymion:

     The penitent shower fell, as down he knelt
     Before that care-worn sage, who trembling felt
     About his large dark locks, and faultering spake:
     Arise, good youth, for sacred Phoebus’ sake!

   • 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 179:

     “You know all, then?”—“I know nothing,” said Melmoth faultering.

Further reading

• “faulter”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• refutal, tearful