circuitous

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin circuitōsus (“abounding in roundabout courses”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} from Latin circuitus (“a going round”), also circumitus,^[3][7][4] the past participle of circueō or circumeō (“to go round”),^[7][8] from circum (“round”) and eō (“to go”).^[8] The OED calls the Latin adjective Late Latin.^[2] The suffix was taken as -ous,^[2][4][9] and the Latin noun is also the source of circuit.^[3][8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the nature of a circuit, roundabout, indirect: 1664, in Henry More's Modest Enquiry into the Mystery of Iniquity,^[2][4] which Klein names as the word's first use.^[7] Etymonline dates it to the 1660s.^[8]

Semantic evolution

From its first use the word described a course that goes the long way round.^[2][8] It is now used above all of routes,^[10][11] and also to indirect or evasive ways of acting and speaking.^[4][3] A sense "like a circus" is recorded once, in 1807, and is now obsolete.^[2] The adverb circuitously is recorded from the late 18th century and the noun circuitousness from the early 19th.^[6]

Timeline

• 1664 – of the nature of a circuit, roundabout, indirect.^[2][4]
• 1807 – circus-like (rare, obsolete).^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Taking a winding or roundabout course that is longer than the direct way: The bus followed a circuitous route through the suburbs.^{[10][3][4][11]}
2. Indirect, evasive or complicated in method or expression: a circuitous explanation.^[3][4]

Word family

• circuitously
• circuitousness
• noncircuitous
• uncircuitous

Related words

• circuit
• circumference

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press