rote

rote¹ repetition, routine

Etymology

The word for learning by repetition is inherited from Middle English rote (“custom, habit”), of unknown origin.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} In its revised entry the OED suggests that it may come from a post-classical use of Latin rota (“wheel”) for a musical composition in the form of a round, with reference to the repetition of information, and compares Middle French rotatif (“(of a song) repetitive”).^[8] Older suggestions connected it with Old French rote (“way, route”), the source of route, or with the Latin word for wheel,^[3][7][9] but Etymonline reports that the OED called both groundless, and Barnhart finds too little evidence for either.^[3][7] Klein derived it from the Old French word, from Vulgar Latin rupta (“broken (way)”), the feminine past participle of Latin rumpō (“to break”), comparing routine,^[10] and Weekley thought it apparently a variant of route, although its vowel pointed rather to the Latin word, used in Medieval Latin for a regular course.^[9] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as perhaps from the Latin word for wheel.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Used in the phrase by rote, in a mechanical or repetitious way, with verbs such as say, sing and play: before 1325.^[8] Etymonline and Barnhart date bi rote, by heart, to about 1300,^[3][12] and the Middle English Dictionary records the phrase as "by heart; according to form; expertly".^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the noun meant custom, habit or practice, also a condition or state, from about 1350 until 1549.^[8][2] By rote with verbs such as know and learn appears in Chaucer's Prioress's Tale (c. 1405 manuscript),^[8] and the sense "mechanical practice, routine" is recorded from 1581, in Mulcaster,^[8] or by the 1580s as "a fixed or unchanging round" in Etymonline.^[3] Johnson (1755) defined it as "words uttered by mere memory without meaning; memory of words without comprehension of the sense", quoting Shakespeare's "First rehearse this song by rote".^[13] The verb, to repeat from memory, is recorded from about 1606 in Drayton,^[8] or the 1590s in Etymonline,^[3] and the adjective, learned by rote or done mechanically, from 1641 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged^[11] but only from 1959 in the OED.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1325 – by rote, mechanically, with verbs of saying, singing and playing.^[8]
• c. 1350 – custom, habit, practice (obsolete by 1549).^[8][2]
• before 1400 – a rigmarole (now rare).^[8]
• c. 1405 – by rote with verbs such as learn and know.^[8]
• 1581 – mechanical practice; routine.^[8][3]
• c. 1606 – verb, to repeat from memory.^[8]
• 1641 – adjective, learned by rote.^[11] The OED dates the adjective, mechanical and repetitious, to 1959.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. Memorization by repetition, often without attention to or understanding of the meaning, chiefly in by rote: She learned the multiplication tables by rote.^{[11][14][15][8]}
2. A mechanical routine or procedure.^[14][15][8]
3. (obsolete, c. 1350–1549) Custom, habit or practice.^[8][2][6]

Adjective

1. Learned by rote; done in a mechanical, repetitious way: rote drills.^[11][8]

Verb

1. (archaic) To repeat or learn by rote.^[11][8]

rote² medieval stringed instrument

Etymology tree of rote²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin rota

Italian ruota

Romanian roată

Spanish rueda

English rote

From the same root · rote²

English rodeo ← rota

Latin rotārius ← rota

Latin rotella ← rota

Latin rotō ← rota

Latin rotula ← rota

Latin rotulus ← rota

Romanian rotilă ← rota

Romanian roti ← roată

Spanish rodeo ← rueda

Etymology

The word for the stringed instrument is inherited from Middle English rote, also rotte,^[2] partly borrowed from Old French rote, the Anglo-Norman and Middle French form, recorded in Old French from the mid-12th century,^[8][16][11] and partly borrowed from Medieval Latin rota, also rotta, recorded from the 8th century.^[8] These come from the Germanic base of Old High German hruoza, also ruoza, in the same sense, which is itself from the Celtic base of Old Irish crot,^[8] the source of crowd in the sense of a musical instrument.^[8][10][11] Dictionary.com names the Germanic form as Frankish *hrota,^[17] and Klein and Weekley call the Old French word of Celtic origin, Weekley comparing Welsh crwth and Irish cruit.^[10][9] Klein notes that it is not related to the Old French word for a way.^[10] The OED compares Middle Dutch rote, Middle Low German rotte, Old High German rotta and German Rotte, and Old Occitan rota, Catalan rota, Spanish rota and Italian rotta.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Any of several medieval stringed instruments with a soundboard, bowed or plucked: about 1330, in Sir Tristrem ("His rote, wiþ outen wen, He rauȝt bi þe ring").^[8][2] The Anglo-Norman word, already for a stringed instrument of the harp family, is recorded from 1155.^[16]

Semantic evolution

Chaucer's General Prologue has "Wel koude he synge and pleyen on a rote", and Gower lists the instrument beside the harp and the citole.^[2] Spenser used the word for a lyre,^[18] and Johnson (1755) entered it as "a harp; a lyre", marking it obsolete and quoting Chaucer and Spenser.^[13] Weekley notes that Scott revived it.^[9] The American Heritage Dictionary describes it as a medieval instrument variously identified with a lyre, a lute or a harp.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – a medieval stringed instrument, in Sir Tristrem.^[8][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A medieval stringed instrument, bowed or plucked, variously identified with the lyre, lute or harp; a crwth.^[8][14][11] Also spelled rota, rotta or rotte.^[11]

rote³ sound of the surf

Etymology

The word for the sound of the surf is of uncertain origin.^[8][11] The OED takes it as apparently a variant of the noun rut in the same sense, although the relationship is hard to explain phonologically,^[8][6] and compares Scottish Gaelic rot (“the sound of waves on the beach”), recorded by 1828 and probably taken from English.^[8] The American Heritage Dictionary thinks it probably of Scandinavian origin and Merriam-Webster Unabridged perhaps so, both comparing Old Norse rauta (“to roar”);^[14][11][17] Klein calls it related to the Old Norse verb and probably imitative,^[10] and Wiktionary derives it from Old Norse rót (“tossing, pitching (of the sea)”).^[1] The form rout arose by confusion with rout.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The roaring of the sea or surf on the shore: 1610, in R. Niccols's England's Eliza.^[8][11]

Semantic evolution

The Shorter Oxford labels the word now Scottish and North American.^[6] The Dictionary of American Regional English records it in coastal New England, with quotations from 1847 on, among them an 1855 one from Nova Scotia in which the rote on the beach foretells rain, and Lowell's "rumbling inwardly like the rote of the sea heard afar" (1864).^[19]

Timeline

• 1610 – the roar of the surf on the shore.^[8][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (chiefly Scottish and North American) The sound of surf breaking on the shore: All night we heard the rote of the sea below the cliffs.^{[14][11][8][6]}