Without looking up on my shelf, there is a Tom Raworth title, Tottering States. The defininition here of a Totter is so appropriate for Tom's technique of picking up all matter of refuse (and refusal) to build a 'tottering state". (Of course, the title is also a pun on the condition of 'states' (political and/or personal) in general, that they be 'tottering' - that be barelay balanced, and about to fall.
"Tattle Tale" - I wonder with out going OED - if that is a story told by a Tot (a young kid) snitching on an older sibling?? (McClellan on Bush et al, as well?)
Stephen V
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
The =
For TOTTER n2, the OED simply has, "See TOT n5.
TOT n5
[Origin unascertained: cf. TAT n.5, v.3]
A dust-heap picker's name for a bone; whence by extension, anything
worth picking from a refuse-heap or elsewhere. Hence totter, a
rag-and-bone
collector; totting, dust-heap picking.
1873 Slang Dict. s.v., 'Tot' is a bone, but chiffoniers and
cinder-hunters
generally are called Tot-pickers nowadays. Totting also has its
votaries on
the banks of the Thames, where all kinds of flotsam and jetsam, from
coals
to carrion, are known as tots. 1880 Law Rep., 5 Q.B.D. 369 The contents
of
the dust-bins consisted chiefly of cinders and ashes and the sweepings
of
the houses, but they also contained a number of articles thrown into
them as
refuse by the occupiers of the houses, and known as 'tots'. 1891 Daily
News
11 Mar. 3/3 Costermongers, wood-cutters, and 'totters', men who lounged
about areas in the hope of getting old bottles and things from
servants.
1910 Lond. City Mission Mag. May 85/2 The Totters. Up betimes, these
queer
people set out by the dozen, with sack or barrow, in quest of rags and
bones, rubber, and bottles, scrap iron and cast-off clothing. Ibid.,
When
all else fails, and one can stoop so low, a day's totting is bound to
yield
the cost of a night's lodging.
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