Meaning

noun walking with short steps and the weight tilting from one foot to the other

verb walk unsteadily

originFrom Middle English wadelen, frequentative form of waden, equivalent to wade + -le. Compare Saterland Frisian wuttelje (“to waddle”), Old High German wadalōn (“to roam; wander”), Middle High German wadelen, wedelen (“to wander; rove”), German wedeln (“to waggle”). First known use in English in a version of the Song of Roland around the year 1400.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0