rondo

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian rondò,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} recorded in Italian for this musical form before 1801,^[2] from French rondeau,^{[2][4][5][7][8]} also rondel,^[5][6] from Old French rondel (“little round, short poem”),^[5][6] a diminutive of roont (“circular”), the source of round.^[5] French in turn took rondo back from Italian in 1806.^[2] The same French word gave English rondeau and rondel.^[5][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A piece of music in which the leading theme returns between other sections: about 1710, in a source collected in Strahle's Early Music Dictionary.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged likewise dates it to about 1710,^[3] while Etymonline and Barnhart give 1797,^[5][6] and the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English the late 18th century.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

The word names a form in which a principal theme or refrain comes back several times, separated by contrasting episodes.^[3][8][11] It was used especially of the last movement of a sonata or concerto.^[2][8][9] A rondo is related in origin to the verse rondeau, whose opening lines likewise recur;^[5][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also describes a sonata-rondo, combining features of both forms.^[3] From 1821 the word also named a gambling game played with balls on a billiard table.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1710 – a piece of music with a recurring leading theme.^[2][3] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word to 1797.^[5][6]
• 1821 – a gambling game played with balls on a billiard table.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A musical form in which a refrain or principal theme recurs, usually in the tonic key, between contrasting episodes.^[3][8]
2. A composition or movement in this form, often the final movement of a sonata or concerto: The concerto closes with a lively rondo.^[8][9][2]
3. A gambling game in which balls are rolled or pushed across a billiard table and bets are settled by the balls that drop or remain.^[3][2][9]

Related words

• rondeau
• rondel
• round
• roundel

Usage notes

The origin of the gambling game is unclear: Merriam-Webster Unabridged treats it as a separate word, from the Louisiana French rondeau, and also records the game under that name,^[3] while the OED keeps it in the same entry but notes that the sense is not found in French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese dictionaries and may be a different word.^[2]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.