circulate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin circulātus, the past participle of circulō (“to make circular, encircle”), also the deponent circulor (“to gather in a circle, collect people about one”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from circulus (“small ring, circle”), the source of circle.^[2][7][3][8] The OED notes that in Medieval Latin and the Romance languages the verb meant to move in a circle.^[2] The English verb grew out of an earlier past participle, Middle English circulat (“continuously distilled”), recorded from 1471.^[4][3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

In alchemy, to distil a substance continuously in a closed vessel, so that the vapour condensed and ran back: 1471, in Ripley's Compound of Alchemy.^[2][8] Barnhart dates the participle to 1471 and the full verb to 1545,^[4] and Etymonline gives the 1540s for the chemical term.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The alchemical sense was obsolete by the end of the 17th century.^[2] The idea of a circle then gave the senses "to gather into a circle" (1553, in Douglas's Eneados) and "to go round, encircle" (before 1560 to 1685).^[2] Dictionary.com dates the earlier senses to 1425–75 and the current ones to 1665–75.^[10] The flow of blood round the body is dated 1603 by Merriam-Webster^[5] and 1656 by the OED,^[2] and movement round a circuit or orbit from 1672, in Newton.^[2] The sense "to pass from place to place or person to person" followed (1660s in Etymonline, 1691 in the OED);^[7][2] it was used of newspapers from 1885.^[7] The transitive "to put into circulation, spread" is recorded from 1780, in Sheridan's School for Scandal.^[2] Johnson (1755) had both the intransitive "to move in a circle" and the transitive "to put about", quoting Denham: "Our knowledge, like our blood, must circulate".^[11] Of people moving about a social gathering, the verb is recorded from 1856, in Hawthorne,^[2] while Etymonline dates it to 1863.^[7]

Timeline

• 1471 – in alchemy, to distil continuously in a closed vessel (obsolete by 1696).^[2]
• 1553 – to gather into a circle.^[2]
• before 1560 – to go round, encircle (obsolete by 1685).^[2]
• 1603 – of blood and other body fluids, to flow round a circuit.^[5] The OED's first record of the sense is of 1656.^[2]
• 1660s – to pass freely from place to place or person to person.^[7] The OED's first record is of 1691.^[2]
• 1672 – to move round a circuit or in an orbit, in Newton.^[2]
• 1769 – of decimals, to recur.^[2]
• 1780 – transitive, to put into circulation, spread.^[2]
• 1848 – US, to walk or travel about.^[2]
• 1856 – of people, to move about a social gathering.^[2]
• 1885 – of newspapers, to be distributed.^[7]
• 1969 – to send circulars to.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move round a closed circuit and back to the start, as blood does through the body: Warm air circulates through the vents.^[6][5][2]
2. To move in a circle or orbit.^[6][5][2]
3. To pass from person to person or place to place: Rumours circulated in the village.^[6][5][2]
4. To send round or distribute widely; to put into circulation: The secretary circulated the minutes.^[6][2]
5. To move about among the guests at a social gathering.^[2][7]
6. (mathematics) Of a decimal, to recur.^[2]
7. (obsolete, 1471–1696) In alchemy, to distil continuously in a closed vessel.^[2][12]

Word family

• circulative
• circulator
• circulatable
• circulation
• intercirculate
• recirculate

Related words

• circle
• circular
• circulatory

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press