- trot (n.)
- c.1300, from Old French trot (12c.), from troter "to trot, to go," from Frankish *trotton (cf. Old High German trotton "to tread"), from a variant of the Germanic base of tread (v.). The trots "diarrhea" is recorded from 1808 (cf. the runs).
- trot (v.)
- late 14c., from Old French troter "to trot, to go," from Frankish *trotton (see trot (n.). Italian trottare, Spanish trotar also are borrowed from Germanic. To trot (something) out originally (1838) was in reference to horses; figurative sense of "produce and display for admiration" is slang first recorded 1845. Related: Trotted; trotting.