Etymologically
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Rolle

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Pronunciation

Forms

Rolle f (genitive Rolle, plural Rollen, diminutive Röllchen n)[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German rolle or rulle, borrowed from Old French rolle (“roll of parchment, list”), from Medieval Latin rotulus and rotula (“small wheel”), diminutives of Latin rota (“wheel”).[2][3][4] Kluge dates it to the 15th century, Duden to the 14th.[2][4] Pfeifer and Wiktionary think the word came partly through Middle Dutch rolle, and Pfeifer sees the influence of the Medieval Latin forms in chancery use; the feminine gender points to the feminine forms, among them rolla.[3][1] Wahrig derives it straight from Medieval Latin.[5] The Latin noun is related to Rad.[4]

The same word is Dutch rol, English roll, English role, French rôle, Swedish rulle and Icelandic rúlla.[2] The verb rollen was borrowed separately, from roler, which rests on a Late Latin verb derived from the same noun.[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first meaning in German was a document on a rolled sheet of parchment, a charter or a list, following Medieval Latin usage.[2][6] Early New High German used it for a scroll, a document or statutes, for a cylinder, wheel or pulley, and for a roll of cloth, paper or wire.[7]

Semantic evolution

Under the influence of the verb rollen the word spread to other cylindrical objects.[2] Since early New High German it has named wheels, rollers and pulleys in many technical uses.[2][3] From the mid-16th century, and widely from the 18th, Rolle was the East Central German, partly northern and Austrian name for the laundry mangle.[3]

The actor's part goes back to the 16th-century custom of writing each player's lines on a roll, unrolled at rehearsal only as far as needed.[2] Pfeifer dates this sense in German to the second half of the 17th century, after Dutch rol (end of the 16th century) and French rôle.[3] In the 18th century it was transferred to a person's position or function, in phrases like eine Rolle spielen and die Rollen vertauschen;[3] since Ralph Linton's The Study of Man (1936) it has been a central term of sociology.[6] In the first half of the 20th century gymnastics took it up for a forward or backward roll and aerobatics for a turn of the aircraft about its long axis.[3] It was borrowed as Modern Hebrew רול (rol).[8]

Timeline

  • Around 1400 – Rolle appears, borrowed from French.[6]
  • 1466 – Middle High German rolle is recorded.[9]
  • Mid-16th century – First record of Rolle “laundry mangle”.[3]
  • 2nd half of the 17th century – Rolle “actor's part”.[3][6]
  • 1700 – Recorded as the name of a hair roll.[6]
  • 18th century – The figurative sense “function, position” develops.[3]
  • 1936 – Linton makes the role a basic concept of sociology.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A roll, something rolled up or wound into a cylinder: eine Rolle Klebeband.[10][1]
  2. A small wheel, roller, castor or pulley on which something runs.[10][1]
  3. (regional) A laundry mangle.[10][1]
  4. (gymnastics) A roll, a turn of the body forwards or backwards;[10] (aerobatics) a roll of the aircraft about its long axis.[10]
  5. (cycling) The roller on the pacer's motorcycle behind which the rider slipstreams.[10]
  6. A role, a part played by an actor.[10][1]
  7. A function or position, the part someone plays in life or in society;[6][1] (sociology) a social role.[6][1]

Word family

  • Biskuitrolle
  • Frühlingsrolle
  • Führungsrolle
  • Rollenspiel
  • Schriftrolle
  • rollen
  • Rodel
  • rotieren
  • Rad
  • English role

Usage notes

Eine Rolle spielen “to matter” and aus der Rolle fallen “to forget oneself, behave out of character” come from the theatre.[6] Von der Rolle sein (colloquial, “to be unable to keep up”) comes from motor-paced cycling.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 772
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
  4. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2020), 6th ed., Duden vol. 7, Berlin: Dudenverlag, p. 700
  5. ^ Wahrig-Burfeind, Renate, ed., Wahrig Herkunftswörterbuch, Gütersloh / München: Wissen Media Verlag; online edition at wissen.de
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Paul, Hermann (2002), Deutsches Wörterbuch: Bedeutungsgeschichte und Aufbau unseres Wortschatzes, 10th ed., ed. Helmut Henne, Heidrun Kämper and Georg Objartel, Tübingen: Niemeyer
  7. ^ Anderson, Robert R.; Goebel, Ulrich; Reichmann, Oskar, eds. (1989–), Frühneuhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, Berlin / New York: De Gruyter; FWB-online, fwb-online.de
  8. ^ Lehnwortportal Deutsch (2012–), Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache, Mannheim, lwp.ids-mannheim.de
  9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Mittelhochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag