Other forms: juggling, juggled, juggles
To juggle is to keep several things in the air, or several tasks going. Juggle three balls, juggle work and family, juggling commitments.
The three-ball cascade is the first pattern anybody learns and the throws alternate hands. Juggling more objects is far harder than it looks, because the time each has in the air rises much more slowly than the number does. The figurative sense is now commoner.
1verbjuggleTo keep several objects in the air at once.
“The street performer juggled flaming torches while the crowd cheered.”
2verbtasksTo keep several tasks going at once.
“As a single mother, she juggles two jobs and the children's school runs.”
juggle is a keeping going.
Middle English jogelen comes from Old French jogler, to jest or perform, from Latin ioculari, to joke, from iocus, a jest.
Middle English
jogelen
English, today
juggle
Built from
From Middle English jogelen, partly a back-formation of Middle English jogeler (“juggler”), and partly a borrowing from Old French jogler, jongler (“to have fun with someone”), a conflation of Latin iocor (“to jest; joke”) and Old French jangler (“to regale; entertain; have fun; trifle with; tease; mess around; gossip; boast; meddle”), from Frankish jangalōn (“to chit-chat with; gossip”), akin to Middle Dutch jankelen (“to murmur; whisper; mumble; grumble”), frequentative of Middle Dutch janken (“to moan; groan; complain”). Related also to Middle Low German janken (“to sigh; moan; lament”), Dutch jengelen (“to whine; whimper”) Dutch janken (“to whine; wimper”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA