Etymologically
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roulette

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Pronunciation

  • /ɹuːˈlɛt/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French roulette (“small wheel”),[2][3][4][5] a diminutive formed with -ette from rouelle (“small wheel”),[2][6][7][8] itself a diminutive of roue (“wheel”),[6][9][10] from Latin rota (“wheel”).[6][5][4] The French word goes back to Old French roelete (“little wheel”),[3][4][11] first recorded in 1119 as Anglo-Norman reuelette.[2] Barnhart and Etymonline take the Old French diminutive as formed on the model of Late Latin rotella, a diminutive of the Latin noun,[3][4] while the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford derive rouelle from it directly.[7][8] The American Heritage Dictionary traces rota to the root Proto-Indo-European *ret-.[5] In French roulette named a cycloid from 1637, in Mersenne, and the gambling game from 1726.[2] The verb is formed from the noun.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small wheel: 1659, in J. Leak's translation of I. de Caus's New Inventions of Water-works; the OED marks the sense rare and obsolete after 1734.[2] Barnhart and Etymonline first record it in 1734.[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In mathematics the word was used from 1708 for the curve traced by a point on a curve rolling along another curve or a line, after the French use for the cycloid.[2] The gambling game appears in English in 1744, in the title of a work by A. Docultree,[2][11] or in 1745 according to Barnhart and Etymonline;[3][4] Etymonline notes that an older English name for the game was roly-poly or rouly-pouly, from 1712.[4] The name passed to the wheel itself in 1818; from 1861 it was used for any game of chance or lottery.[2] Russian roulette, the act of bravado with a revolver loaded with one cartridge, is recorded from 1937.[2][11] Toolmakers used the word for a small toothed wheel that presses a design into a soft surface (1806), and philatelists for one that perforates sheets of postage stamps (1867), from which the verb "to perforate stamps with a roulette" arose in 1871.[2] MWU dates this verb from 1867.[11] The word was also used for a small tube for curling hair (1860) and for a massage roller (1887), both now historical.[2]

Timeline

  • 1659 – a small wheel (obsolete after 1734).[2]
  • 1708 – in mathematics, the curve traced by a point on a rolling curve.[2]
  • 1744 – the gambling game.[2][11]
  • 1806 – a toothed wheel for engraving or pottery.[2]
  • 1818 – the wheel used in the game.[2]
  • 1861 – any game of chance; a lottery.[2]
  • 1867 – a tool for perforating sheets of stamps.[2]
  • 1871 – verb, to perforate stamps with a roulette.[2]
  • 1937 – Russian roulette.[2][11]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A gambling game in which a ball is dropped onto a spinning wheel with numbered red and black compartments, the players betting on where it will come to rest: They lost their winnings at the roulette table.[12][11][2]
  2. The wheel used in this game.[2]
  3. Any game of chance or lottery, often with a word before it.[2]
  4. A small toothed wheel used to make a line of perforations in sheets of postage stamps, or one of the slits it makes.[12][2]
  5. A tool with a toothed or engraved wheel that presses a design into a soft surface, used in engraving and ceramics.[2][12]
  6. (mathematics) The curve traced by a point on a curve as it rolls without slipping along another curve or a line.[2][12]
  7. (obsolete, 1659–1734) A small wheel.[2][8]

Verb

  1. To perforate or indent sheets of postage stamps with a roulette.[11][2]
  2. To decorate something, or make a design, with a roulette.[11][2]

Word family

  • Russian roulette

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  10. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins