Posted by on 7/29/2025 to
Outdoor Recreational Products
The More You Know
One should never stop being curious. There is too much joy in learning new things and developing new talents. When one phase of life ends, another begins; with each new phase of life come new opportunities to learn new information. Therefore, we expect that if you are here, reading this article at this time, you must be in the phase of life where you are trying to learn meaningless trivia as much as possible so you can expertly talk about something at your next family gathering or around the water cooler at work. We are more than pleased to assist you with this endeavor. Let's talk teeter-totters. Or should we say seesaws?
There is a common approach in linguistics whereby you can say that whatever word names a thing first is the truest, best way to talk about that thing. Thus, which word came first: teeter-totter or seesaw? The good news about meaningless trivia is that there are plenty of websites dedicated to this very purpose, and what better meaningless-trivia site to start with than Wikipedia?
Last-Word Standing: The Etymology Showdown
In their seesaw/teeter-totter article, they seem to indicate the French likely began the term in French using ci-ça, which means “this that” and is pronounced see-saw in English, which is where we get the term see-saw using an Anglicized spelling of the French term. But then the Wikipedia article backtracks and seems to give the French at least partial credit again, only this time using a different etymology. In this alternative universe, it uses the French word scie (also pronounced see), which means saw, with the English word saw, thus producing the see-saw wording again. But, the Wikipedia article continues, it could also have been straight-up English, with see-saw referring to the effect of an an “oscillating background—therefore ‘I see you,’ followed by ‘I saw you.’” Because we at Competitive Edge Products strive to be fair and adhere to strict mathematical structure in all that we do, we have therefore concluded that see-saw is likely 65% French and 35% English. However, this same Wikipedia article also references a picture of an ancient Greek artifact that appears to show a couple of philosophers (it doesn’t mention philosophers in the article, but obviously that is who they are since all ancient Greeks were philosophers) standing on a see-saw. Though, it should also be noted that the article never mentions an ancient Greek word for see-saw. Etymonline puts the earliest use of the term see-saw at around 1630 A.D. Meanwhile, on the teeter-totter front, Wikipedia mentions the word appears to be purely of English descent as a variation of the word “tittermatorter” from the “Norfolk dialect” in eastern England. And Etymonline puts teeter-totter as showing up in the world only after see-saw’s 240th birthday in the 1870s. Thus, using our careful calculations, see-saw gets the nod due to its claim on antiquity. But age will not be our only consideration. Let’s look at who says which variation.
Polling the Populace (and Picking on Rhode Island)
As we were all taught growing up, always do whatever everyone else is doing. Perhaps, then, we should look at the sheer volume of people who use either the word teeter-totter or see-saw and go with the crowd. Thus, we return to another Wikipedia article, this time on regional vocabulary. Through the powers of the Internet, Wikipedia’s article was able to determine that teeter-totter is commonly used in the northern parts of America and seesaw is used in the “south and midland” parts of America. While these are generalized areas in the country with no known sheer volumes of speakers using one term or the other, we can turn to ChatGPT to work its magic to help answer this world-endangering problem. After completing whatever AIs do, ChatGPT returned the answer of seesaw, by a volume of 2 to 1. That does sound impressive. However, we shouldn’t just submit all of our thinking to the will of AI. If we did, in this case, we might have overlooked that in the US there is another term for see-saw and teeter-totter that we have not yet discussed: the “dandle.” What is a “dandle,” you may be wondering? Well, if you completed reading two sentences ago, you would realize that it is another term referring to a see-saw/teeter-totter. Who would even use such a name for such an adventurous toy? According to Wikipedia, people in Rhode Island. I have never been to Rhode Island. All I know about Rhode Island is what we learned about it in grade school: (1) that it is not actually an island (though part of it is); and (2) the colony of Rhode Island apparently did not send delegates to the Constitutional Convention. The latter point is hundreds of years old, so we will forgive them. The former point, however, feels deceptive. Thus, because of this deliberate deception, we will exclude “dandle,” if that is indeed a word used by Rhode Islanders to describe a see-saw/teeter-totter.
The Absolute, Truest Word To Use
Well, where does that leave us? Which is the truest way to refer to this amazing toy? To answer this, we will defer to Lifetime Products, which makes an amazing airplane seesaw/teeter-totter. Lifetime calls this product a teeter-totter. Thus, teeter-totter shall be its name for all the peoples of the earth henceforth and forever. It is the only mathematical conclusion at which the sincere seeker of truth in meaningless trivia can arrive.
1 Comments
Admin - Competitive Edge Products
Date
11/24/2025
Thank you for reading our article! This is exactly the kind of fun, educational content that makes us think about everyday language we rarely question. Whether your customers call it a teeter-totter, seesaw, or dandle, one thing's for certainthey'll have a blast on our Lifetime teeter-totters and playsets! Regional language variations are fascinating, and we love how this piece combines history, linguistics, and humor. Our outdoor playground equipment has been enjoyed by families using all these regional terms across the country. Do you have a regional preference for what you call it? We'd love to hear from customers about which terminology they use!
