Where does “rattler” come from?

Rattler comes from English rattle plus the agent noun suffix -er, ultimately from Latin -arius, meaning "one who does or makes," descended through Old French -er and Proto-Italic -os.

rattler (English): Anything that rattles; A rattlesnake; A freight...

Definitions

  1. Anything that rattles; A rattlesnake; A freight...

Ancestry of “rattler”, step by step

rattler traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via English rattle

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Englishrattlea sound made by loose objects shaking or...
2Arabicرَطْل—
3Classical Syriacܪܝܛܠܐ—
4Classical Syriacܠܝܛܪܐlibra, pound
5Frenchlitrelitre
6Medieval Latinlitra—
7Ancient Greekλίτραlitra, a Sicilian silver coin; libra, a unit of...
8Proto-Italic*līðrāingot

via German Ratte

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1GermanRatterat
2Middle High Germanratte—
3Old High Germanratorat
4Proto-Germanicratō—
5Proto-Germanicrattazrat
6Proto-Indo-EuropeanHreh₃d-to scrape

Words derived from “rattler”

Every word from Proto-Italic *līðrā →Every word from Ancient Greek λίτρα →Every word from Medieval Latin litra →