roundup

Etymology

It is formed from English round + up, and is also written with a hyphen.^[1][2][3] In its first, shipbuilding sense the first element is the noun round, a curve; in its later senses the word is a noun use of the phrasal verb round up.^[2][3][4] The verb phrase, to collect in a mass, is recorded from the 1610s, and of livestock driven together on grazing land by 1847;^[1] Etymonline supposes that the first idea was to heap something up so that it is round at the top.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The curve of a ship's transom, later also the camber of a deck: 1769, in Falconer's Universal Dictionary of the Marine.^[2][3] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1760–70.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The shipbuilding sense, now chiefly historical,^[2] was soon overshadowed by a use from the cattle country of the western United States: the driving together of range cattle to be counted, branded or taken to market, recorded from 1847, and the riders and horses who took part from 1878.^[2][5] Etymonline finds the cattle sense by 1869;^[1] the Dictionary of American Regional English labels it western,^[5] and in Canada it is recorded from 1883, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.^[6] From 1879 the word was extended to any systematic gathering of people or things, especially the arrest of many suspects by the police,^[2][3][7] and in the same year American colloquial speech gave the last roundup for death or the Last Judgement.^[2] A roundup was also a reunion of friends (1880); from 1884 it was a gathering of facts or a summary of news,^[2] which Etymonline dates to 1886.^[1] In 1912 it was used for a rodeo.^[2]

Timeline

• 1769 – the curve of a ship's transom (shipbuilding).^[2][3]
• 1847 – a driving together of cattle to be counted, branded or sold.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to 1869.^[1]
• 1856 – a rounding off or conclusion.^[2]
• 1878 – the riders and horses taking part in a cattle roundup.^[2]
• 1879 – a systematic gathering of people or things, especially an arrest of suspects.^[2]
• 1879 – the last roundup, death or the Last Judgement.^[2]
• 1880 – a meeting of friends, a reunion.^[2]
• 1884 – a summary of facts or news.^[2] Etymonline dates the news sense to 1886.^[1]
• 1912 – a rodeo.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The gathering together of cattle or other livestock by riders, to be counted, branded or sent to market: The ranch hired extra hands for the spring roundup.^[7][3][8][2]
2. The riders and horses taking part in such a gathering.^[3][8][2]
3. A gathering in of scattered people or things, especially the arrest of a number of suspects by the police: a roundup of protesters.^[7][3][8][2]
4. A summary of facts or events, especially of the news: the evening sports roundup.^[8][3][2]
5. (shipbuilding) An upward curve of a ship's deck; camber.^[3][2]

Related words

• round
• up

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
6. ^ Dollinger, Stefan, ed., A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, 3rd ed. (online), Vancouver: University of British Columbia, dchp.arts.ubc.ca
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt