If you are out of Kilter ...

he origin of the word kilter as in "out of kilter" is'nt really known. Apparently it started out as kelter rather than kilter. In that form it was once widely known in various English and Scots dialects from at least the sixteenth century onwards. It means a state of good health or spirits, or good order. Unfortunately, we’ve no idea where it comes from.

(In the interests of accuracy and completeness, there were several other dialect senses of kelter, including that of money or property, rubbish or litter, silly talk or nonsense, or—as a verb—to move in an undulating manner. The English Dialect Dictionary has a wonderful quote from a Scottish source about this last one: “Eels are said to kelter in the water when they wamble.” To wamble is to turn and twist the body about, roll or wriggle about, or roll over and over.)

Sometime in the seventeenth century, the word started to be spelled kilter, for a reason as much lost in time as the origin of the word itself. For a while, both spellings co-existed—the older one appears in the 1811 edition of Captain Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue: “KELTER. Condition, order. Out of kelter; out of order”, which also gives the money sense. Eventually, the kilter spelling mostly prevailed, though the older version still turns up occasionally.
 
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does that imply you've been in Kilter and if so was it worth it?

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Answers: a) you are crew or passenger
b) you are the tender (aka 'out of')
c) you are the meal I hurled over the lea rail
Worth it? a) yes b) so so c) what do you think!
 
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