kilter

English

Etymology

A variant of dialectal kelter (“good condition, order”), of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɪl.tə/
• IPA^(key): /ˈkɪl.tɚ/
• Rhymes: -ɪltə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: kil‧ter

Noun

kilter (countable and uncountable, plural kilters)

1. (chiefly in the negative) Alternative form of kelter (“(good) condition, form, or order; fettle”) [from 17th c.]

   not in kilter

   • 1890, Charles Erskine, chapter V, in Twenty Years before the Mast: […], Boston, Mass.: Published by the author, →OCLC, page 72:

     [T]hey are either round-shouldered, knock-kneed, bow-legged, or parrot-toed; some are also badly cross-eyed. It seems as if they can see two different ways at the same time. Jack says they are lop-sided
 and out of kilter altogether.

   • 1909, Robert W[illiam] Service, “The Man from Eldorado”, in Ballads of a Cheechako, Toronto, Ont.: William Briggs, →OCLC, part I, stanza 2, page 71:

     [H]e lived on tinned tomatoes, beef embalmed and sourdough bread, / On rusty beans and bacon furred with mould; / His stomach’s out of kilter and his system full of lead, / But it's over, and his poke is full of gold.

2. Alternative form of kelter (“a bad hand of cards in a game”)

Alternative forms

• kelter

Derived terms

• off-kilter
• out of kilter

Translations

(good) condition, form, or order

• Bulgarian: порядък (bg) m (porjadǎk), изправност (bg) f (izpravnost)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Einklang (de) m, Ordnung (de) f, Zustand (de) m

Further reading

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “kilter”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• kirtle