Seesaw

A seesaw, sometimes called a teeter-totter in North America, is a long, narrow board balanced on a single pivot point, usually at its center. When one end rises, the other falls. These are typically found in parks and school playgrounds. In mechanical terms, a seesaw is a lever made of a beam and a fulcrum, with effort and load on opposite sides.

Varieties

The most common playground version has a board balanced in the middle. Two people sit at opposite ends and push off the ground with their feet to lift their side.

Handles are often provided for grip while riders face each other. A design issue is that if a child suddenly hits the ground after jumping off, or leaves the seesaw while at the bottom, the other rider may fall and get hurt. To reduce this risk, seesaws are often placed over soft surfaces like foam, wood chips, or sand.

Seesaws are also made in novelty shapes, such as airplanes, helicopters, or animals.

Children’s enthusiasm for seesaws has been used to power mechanical processes. For example, at the Gaviotas community in Colombia, a seesaw is connected to a water pump. In 2019, seesaws were installed across the US-Mexico border fence between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez.

Name origin and variations

The name “seesaw” (or “see-saw”) comes from the French ci-ça, meaning “this-that,” referring to the back-and-forth motion. It may also relate to the repetitive motion of a saw, possibly combining the French scie (saw) with the Anglo-Saxon “saw,” forming “scie-saw” and later “see-saw.” Another theory is that it describes the alternating view of the opposite rider, who appears and disappears as they rise and fall—hence “I see you” then “I saw you.”

In the northern inland and westernmost United States, it is also called a “teeter-totter.” Linguist Peter Trudgill traces this to the Norfolk dialect word tittermatorter. “Teeter-totter” can also refer to a two-person swing that moves back and forth like a pendulum. Both “teeter-totter” (from “teeter,” as in teetering on the edge) and “seesaw” (from “saw”) are examples of reduplication, where a word or syllable is repeated with a different vowel—common in words for repeated actions like riding up and down.

In southeastern New England, it is sometimes called a “tilt” or “tilting board.” According to Michael Drout, “teeter-” forms are almost absent in Pennsylvania, while a band of “Ridey-Horse” runs through western West Virginia and into western North Carolina. This suggests a New England term spread down the coast and a separate Scots-Irish development in Appalachia. “Hickey-horse” in coastal North Carolina matches other linguistic and ethnic patterns.

Popularity

In the early 2000s, seesaws were removed from many U.S. playgrounds due to safety concerns. Some have questioned this removal, arguing that the fun they provide may outweigh the safety risks.