rodar

Forms

rodar (first-person singular present ruedo, first-person singular preterite rodé, past participle rodado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rotō (“to make turn, whirl; to roll down”).^[2][3][4][1] The Latin verb is a derivative of rota (“wheel”), the source of Spanish rueda.^[5][4][2] The learned rotar is a later borrowing of the same Latin verb, a doublet of the inherited verb.^[6][1]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese rodar, Catalan rodar, Occitan rodar and Italian rotare.^[7][6] It became Old French roer, modern rouer, and the Occitan verb, which also meant “to roam”, was taken into French as rôder.^[8][7]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *rotā and to a Proto-Indo-European adjective meaning “revolving”, from Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- (“to run, roll”); its cognates include Old High German rad (“wheel”).^[9][1] De Vaan takes the Latin noun as the feminine of that adjective, used as a noun.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is in Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor (1330–1343).^[2][10] Nebrija's Vocabulario (c. 1495) has two entries: rodar “to carry round”, Latin roto, and rodar “to go round”, Latin rotor.^[10][11]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to fall rolling” is recorded from the early 17th century, in Quevedo and Calderón.^[2][3] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined the verb as moving over the ground while turning round its own axis, moving on wheels, as coaches do in Madrid, and falling down a slope or a staircase.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 added the figurative senses “to lie about through neglect”, “to abound” (of money in a house), “to go about pressing one's claims” and the phrase rodar por alguno “to be ready to do anything for someone”.^[13] The Academy's 2001 dictionary also listed the senses “to shoot a film” and “to run in a new car”.^[14]

In Argentina and Mexico rodar is said of a horse that stumbles and falls forward while running.^[15][16] In Costa Rica it means “to coax, win over with flattery”, and in Chile “to strip (a screw or nut)”.^[16] In the Canary Islands the reflexive rodarse means “to move along, shift over”, and in the Dominican Republic the verb also means “to move (something)” or “to put off (an event)”.^[17][18][1]

Timeline

• 1251 – DEMel lists a record in the glossary of the Calila e Dimna.^[19]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor, the DCECH's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it traer en derredor, Latin roto.^[11][10]
• 1528 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[20]
• Early 17th century – the sense “to fall rolling”, in Quevedo.^[2][3]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades notes the change of o to ue in some forms.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, from Latin rotare.^[21]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To run in a new car, keeping below the speeds the maker sets for that period.^[4]
2. (transitive) To film, shoot (a film or scene): Rodaron el anuncio en un pueblo de la costa.^[4][1]
3. (transitive) To act in or direct a film.^[4]
4. (transitive, Costa Rica) To coax, win someone over with flattery.^[4][16]
5. (intransitive) To turn round an axis, either in one place, like a millstone, or moving along, like a rolling ball.^[4][1]
6. (intransitive) To move on wheels (ruedas): El tranvía rodaba despacio por la avenida.^[4]
7. (intransitive) To fall turning over and over down a slope.^[4][22]
8. (intransitive) Of a thing: to have no fixed place, to lie about.^[4][22]
9. (intransitive) To wander from place to place without settling anywhere.^[4][22]
10. (intransitive) Of money: to abound, flow freely.^[4]
11. (intransitive, colloquial) Of a person: to be ready to do anything another person asks, however hard.^[4]
12. (reflexive, Canary Islands) To move over, shift along a seat.^[17][1]

Word family

• rodada
• rodado
• rodaje
• rodadura
• rodante
• rodador

Related words

• rotar
• rueda
• ruedo
• Latin rota

Usage notes

Rodar changes its stem vowel to ue when it is stressed (ruedo, rueda, ruede), an irregularity the Diccionario de Autoridades already pointed out.^[1][12] The purist Baralt held in 1855 that the verb is always intransitive in Spanish and objected to transitive rodar “to roll along” as French usage.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 83
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rueda
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. rodar
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. rotare
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. rotāre
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rouer
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. rodar
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 410
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 629
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 768
14. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. rodar
15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1463
16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. rodar
17. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. rodar
18. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. rodar
19. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. rodar
20. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. rodar
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 938
22. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rodar
23. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 620