revolve

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English revolven,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French revolver (“to turn; to turn over in the mind”)^[5][3][6] and directly borrowed from Latin revolvō (“to roll back, unroll; to go back over in thought”),^[5][3][6][7] formed from re- (“back, again”) and volvō (“to roll, turn”).^[3][8][9] Etymonline traces the Latin verb to Proto-Indo-European *wel- (“to turn, revolve”).^[3][7] Several dictionaries give only the Latin source.^{[8][4][9][10]} From the simple Latin verb come also revolution, revolt, voluble, volume, vault, involve, devolve and convoluted.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

To change: about 1385, in Thomas Usk's The Testament of Love.^[6][2][3] The OED's earliest records are from before 1425, of rolling something and of binding a limb, both now obsolete.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The Latin sense of rolling back led to the early English senses of turning back, restoring and turning the eyes round,^[5][11][9] and the sense of turning something over in the mind is recorded from the early 15th century.^[3][9] Of time, the verb was used from 1449 for coming round or passing.^[5][2] The sense of moving something in a circle or in an orbit around a centre is recorded in the OED from 1559,^[5] while Etymonline dates it to the 1660s and Barnhart to Milton's Paradise Lost (1667).^[3][6] The intransitive senses, of a planet orbiting and of a wheel rotating, follow from 1660 in the OED;^[5] Etymonline dates them to 1713 and 1738.^[3] The noun revolver, for a pistol with a revolving cylinder, was coined by Samuel Colt in 1835, according to Weekley.^[12] The noun revolve, a rotation, is recorded from 1598, and in the theatre from 1900 for a turntable used to change scenery.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1385 – to change, in Usk's The Testament of Love.^[6][2]
• before 1425 – to roll something; to bind or wrap a limb (both obsolete by the mid 17th century).^[5]
• 1431 – to bring back to a place or state; to restore (now rare).^[5]
• 1449 – of time, to pass, come round.^[5][2]
• 1523 – to turn the eyes back or round.^[5]
• 1559 – to cause to move in a circle or orbit; to rotate.^[5]
• 1598 – noun, a rotation, a revolution (now rare).^[5]
• 1660 – of a celestial body, to orbit a centre; of a thing, to rotate on an axis.^[5]
• 1900 – noun, in the theatre, a revolving stage or turntable.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To move in a circle around a centre; to orbit: The moon revolves around the earth.^[13][5]
2. To turn around on an axis; to rotate, or to make something rotate.^[13][5]
3. revolve around or about: to have as its centre or main concern: Her whole week revolved around the exam.^[13]
4. To occur in cycles; of time, to come round again.^[13][5]
5. To think about something at length; to turn over in the mind: He revolved the offer in his mind for days.^[13][4][14]
6. (obsolete) To turn the eyes back or around.^[4][8]
7. (obsolete) To bring back; to restore.^[4][8]

Noun

1. In the theatre, a circular section of a stage that can be rotated to change the scene.^[13][5]
2. (rare) An act of revolving; a revolution.^[4][5]

Word family

• revolvable
• revolvably
• unrevolved
• revolver

Related words

• revolution
• revolt
• volume
• voluble
• involve
• devolve
• evolve

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.