Other forms: trotting, trotted, trots
To trot is to move at a steady pace between walking and running. A horse's second gear.
Horses have four paces and the trot is the bouncy one, which is why riders learn to rise to it. People trot too, meaning a brisk jog, and dogs trot beside you. The noun gives us on the trot, meaning one after another, so three wins on the trot is three in a row. Trotting something out means producing the same tired argument again.
Trot is a walking word that narrowed. Frankish trottōn meant simply to go or to run, from a Germanic root meaning to step or tread, and the horse took the general word for itself.
Proto-Indo-European
*dreh₂- — to run, escape
Proto-Germanic
*trudōną
Frankish
*trottōn — to go, run
Medieval Latin
*trottō, *trotō — to go
Old French
trotter
Middle English
trotten
English, today
trot
Built from
From Middle English trotten, from Old French trotter, troter (“to go, trot”), from Medieval Latin trottō, trotō (“to go”), from Frankish trottōn (“to go, run”), from Proto-Germanic trudōną, trudaną, tradjaną (“to go, step, tread”), from Proto-Indo-European dreh₂- (“to run, escape”). Cognate with Old High German trottōn (“to run”), Modern German trotten (“to trot, plod”), Gothic 𐍄𐍂𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (“to tread”), Old Norse troða (“to walk, tread”), Old English tredan (“to step, tread”). a doublet of trade and tread*.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA