cyclical

Etymology

It is formed from English cyclic + -al,^[2][3][4] although the OED and Merriam-Webster take the base to be Latin cyclicus (or, for Merriam-Webster, French cyclique) with the English suffix.^[5][6] The adjective cyclic is from French cyclique, from Latin cyclicus, from Ancient Greek κυκλικός (kuklikós, “moving in a circle”), from κύκλος (kúklos, “circle, wheel”), the source of cycle.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a line, returning into itself so as to form a closed curve: 1817, in Coleridge's Biographia Literaria.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The first, geometrical sense is now rare.^[5] From the 1830s cyclical was used as a longer form of cyclic, for whatever belongs to or moves in a cycle, the OED's first example being from Coleridge.^[5][2] From 1838 it was used, in Thomas Arnold's History of Rome, of something belonging to a fixed chronological cycle.^[5] In 1841 De Quincey used it, like cyclic, of the poets of an epic cycle.^[5] The natural sciences added senses in the later 19th century: in botany, rolled up in a circle, as many seed embryos are (1866), and arranged in whorls (1881), which zoology then borrowed.^[5][2] The commonest modern use, of the ups and downs of the economy, appears in Merriam-Webster as a sense of its own, "related to or caused by a business cycle".^[6]

Timeline

• 1817 – of a line, returning into itself.^[5][2]
• 1834 – pertaining to a cycle, cyclic.^[2][5]
• 1838 – belonging to a definite chronological cycle.^[5]
• 1841 – belonging to a literary cycle.^[5]
• 1866 – in botany, rolled up in a circle.^[5]
• 1879 – of a letter, circular, encyclical (rare).^[5]
• 1881 – arranged in whorls.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Happening in cycles; recurring at regular or repeated intervals; cyclic: the cyclical return of the monsoon.^[6][5][3]
2. Related to or caused by the business cycle; rising and falling with the general state of the economy: Steel is a cyclical industry.^[6]
3. Belonging to a fixed chronological cycle.^[5]
4. In botany, rolled up in a circle, or arranged in whorls.^[5][2]
5. Of a line, forming a closed curve (rare).^[5][2]

Word family

• cyclically
• cyclicality
• anticyclical
• contracyclical
• countercyclical
• noncyclical
• procyclical
• cyclical unemployment

Related words

• cycle
• cyclic
• encyclical
• bicycle
• cyclone
• wheel

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.