circulation

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˌsɜː.kjəˈleɪ.ʃən/, US /ˌsɝː.kjəˈleɪ.ʃən/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French circulation or directly borrowed from Latin circulātiō,^[2][3][4] a noun from circulāre, to form a circle, from circulus, small ring (see circle and circulate).^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In alchemy, the continuous distillation of a liquid, changing one element into another: the mid-15th century in Etymonline;^[3][4] movement round about, 1535 in the OED.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Of blood, moving so that it returns and begins again, it was first used by William Harvey in the 1620s.^[3] Repetition of a series of events in the same order is from 1682.^[5] The act of being distributed, as of money or news, is from the 1680s,^[3] and the extent to which a newspaper or magazine circulates, its number of copies, from 1847.^[3] In circulation and out of circulation are later idioms.^[6][7]

Timeline

• mid-15th century – continuous distillation.^[3]
• 1535 – movement round about.^[5]
• 1620s – circulation of the blood.^[3]
• 1680s – distribution.^[3]
• 1847 – a newspaper's circulation.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The movement of blood round the body, pumped by the heart.
2. Movement or passage through a system or in a circle.
3. The spread or passing of something, such as money or news, from person to person.
4. The number of copies of a newspaper or magazine sold or distributed.

Word family

• microcirculation
• noncirculation
• collateral circulation
• pulmonary circulation
• systemic circulation

Related words

• circulate
• circle
• circular
• circus

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin