Unstable or likely to tip over easily; in a precarious or teetering state of balance.
From the noun 'tip,' meaning to lean or tilt, combined with the diminutive or descriptive suffix '-y.' Emerged in English in the late 1800s to describe wobbly objects.
Kids naturally say 'tippy' because it mimics the movement it describes—your mouth tips forward slightly, just like the object tips over, making it one of those onomatopoeia-adjacent words that feels like what it means!
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