roulette

Forms

roulette f (plural roulettes)^[1] Old French reüelette (1119) and Middle French rouellette (1406–1442); the spelling roulette is recorded by Richelet in 1680.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from French rouelle + -ette, from the Old French form ruele, roele “little wheel”.^[2][4] The base goes back to Late Latin rotella, a diminutive of rota (“wheel”).^[5][6] The modern form was felt as a derivative of rouler, which shaped it.^[3][7][8] Littré took it as the feminine of roulet, a diminutive of an old word for “roll”, and gave the gambling game a separate entry, derived from the verb,^[9] but the TLFi and the Grand Robert treat both as one word.^[2][7]

Cognate with Italian rotella and Spanish rodilla (“knee”), which continue the same Late Latin diminutive.^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found as reüelette in Philippe de Thaon's Comput (1119), meaning a small wheel.^[2][3] In 1406–1442 it is used of the small wheel of a wheelbarrow.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

As roulette took over the literal sense “little wheel” from rouelle, it pushed the older word out of common use.^[3] It then named many devices with a small wheel: the caster fixed under the foot of a piece of furniture (1680), a bookbinder's tool (1680), an engraver's tool (1866), shoemakers' and sewing tools (1904) and, the commonest of these today, the dentist's drill (1964).^[2][3] A small chair on two or three wheels pushed through the streets was called a roulette in 1689,^[2][3] and in 1874 the word named a mobile toll office.^[2] The phrase comme sur des roulettes “smoothly, without a hitch” is recorded from 1813,^[2][3] and patin à roulettes “roller skate” from 1875.^[2]

In mathematics roulette was the old name of the cycloid (1615); from 1875 it also named any curve traced by a point of a curve rolling on a fixed one.^[2][3] The gambling game is recorded from 1726 (joüer à la Roulette); from 1840, in Balzac, the word served as a figure of chance.^[2][3] English borrowed the word as “small wheel” in 1734 and for the game in 1745.^[6]

Timeline

• 1119 – Reüelette “little wheel” appears in Philippe de Thaon's Comput.^[2]
• 1406–1442 – Rouellette de brouette, the small wheel of a wheelbarrow.^[2][3]
• 1615 – Mersenne's name for the cycloid.^[2][3]
• 1680 – Richelet records the furniture caster and the bookbinder's tool.^[2]
• 1689 – A small chair on wheels pushed by a man.^[2][3]
• 1726 – The gambling game: joüer à la Roulette.^[2][3]
• 1734 – English borrows the word as “small wheel”, and for the game in 1745.^[6]
• 1813 – Comme sur des roulettes “very smoothly”.^[2][3]
• 1866 – An engraver's tool.^[2]
• 1875 – Patin à roulettes; in geometry, a curve rolling on a fixed curve.^[2][3]
• 1964 – The dentist's drill.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small wheel, caster or ball fixed under a piece of furniture or an object so that it can be moved easily: un fauteuil à roulettes.^[8][2]
2. Comme sur des roulettes: (familiar) very smoothly, without difficulty: le voyage s'est passé comme sur des roulettes.^[8][3]
3. In compounds: patin à roulettes “roller skate”, planche à roulettes “skateboard”.^[8][1]
4. A hand tool with a small disc turning on an axle, used by dressmakers, pastry cooks, glaziers and bookbinders.^[8][2]
5. (familiar) The dentist's drill.^[8][3]
6. A gambling game in which a small ball thrown into a revolving bowl of numbered compartments decides who wins, also the revolving bowl itself: jouer à la roulette.^[8][2]
7. Roulette russe: Russian roulette, firing a revolver loaded with only some bullets without knowing which chamber is loaded.^[8][1]
8. (mathematics) A curve traced by a point of a moving curve that rolls on a fixed one, the cycloid being one kind.^[8][2]

Related words

• rouelle
• rouler
• roue
• Late Latin rotella
• English roulette

References

1. ^ a b c d 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 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
5. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter