Etymologically
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rotary

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 02:16. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈɹəʊ.tə.ɹi/[1]
  • US: /ˈɹoʊ.tə.ɹi/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin rotārius (“pertaining to wheels; wheeled”),[2][3][4][5][6] from Latin rota (“wheel”) and the suffix -ārius.[4][5][7] The OED records the Medieval Latin adjective in British sources from the 13th century, and as a noun for a wheelwright from the 10th.[4] The Latin noun is from Proto-Indo-European *ret- (“to run, to turn, to roll”),[2][6][8] which also gave Lithuanian ratas (“wheel”), Old Irish roth and Welsh rhod (“carriage wheel”), and the West Germanic word for wheel, Old High German rad, German Rad and Dutch rad.[2][8] It is related to rotate and roll.[9][8][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of motion, circular, taking place round a centre or axis: 1704, in John Harris's Lexicon Technicum.[4][5] Etymonline and Barnhart date the word to 1731, in Bailey's Dictionary.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Johnson (1755) gave only "whirling as a wheel".[10] With the machines of the industrial age the adjective came to describe things that work by rotation (1799), and in particular the printing press with its type on a rotating cylinder (1821); the noun rotary, a rotary machine or press, follows in 1836.[4][5] Later uses include rotary well drilling (1901) and the rotary telephone dial (1910).[4] A sense "acting in rotation", of people taking turns (1758), is now rare,[4] but it lies behind the name of the Rotary Club, the service club founded in Chicago in 1905 by Paul P. Harris, whose members entertained in rotation;[2][11] Rotary and Rotarian are recorded from 1911.[2][4][11] In North America a rotary is also a traffic roundabout, from 1940.[4][12]

Timeline

  • 1704 – of motion, circular, round an axis.[4][5]
  • 1731 – in Bailey's Dictionary.[2][3]
  • 1758 – acting in rotation, by turns (now rare).[4]
  • 1799 – working by rotation.[4]
  • 1821 – of a printing press with a rotating cylinder.[4]
  • 1836 – noun, a rotary machine or press.[4][5]
  • 1910 – of a telephone dial.[4]
  • 1911 – Rotary, the Rotary Club, and Rotarian.[4][2]
  • 1940 – North American, a traffic roundabout.[4]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Turning round an axis like a wheel; rotational: the rotary motion of the blades.[12][5][4]
  2. Working by rotation, or having a main part that turns: a rotary engine.[12][5][4]
  3. Of a telephone, having a dial turned with the finger.[4]
  4. Rotary: of a Rotary Club or the organization of Rotary Clubs.[4][11]

Noun

  1. A rotary machine, especially a rotary printing press.[5][4]
  2. (US, Canada) A roundabout for traffic.[12][5][4]
  3. Rotary: the Rotary organization, or one of its clubs.[4]

Word family

  • levorotary
  • Rotarian
  • rotary beater
  • rotary dial
  • rotary engine
  • rotary press
  • rotary wing
  • rotary-wing aircraft

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b c Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  11. ^ a b c Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins