English
roulette
Roulette comes from French roulette ‘roulette, little wheel’, from rouler ‘to roll’, and ultimately from Latin rotula.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErotula
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500rotulāre
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400roeler‘to roll’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentrouler‘to roll’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentroulette‘roulette, little wheel’
- Englishearliest quotation 1982same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history not traced here.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErotula
- Medieval Latinc. 600–1500rotulāre
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400roeler‘to roll’
- Frenchc. 1600–presentrouler‘to roll’
- French, derivedc. 1600–presentroulette‘roulette, little wheel’
- Englishearliest quotation 1982same form
Earliest quotation: 1982, Donna Hilts, TV Report On Vaccine Stirs Bitter Controversy: “Doctors and health officials said that the WRC-TV documentary,…”
The story
The sense "situation with a random chance of incurring serious harm" may be abstracted from Russian roulette.
Linked words
through Medieval Latin rotulāre
Today it means
noun A game of chance in which a small ball is made to move round rapidly on a circle divided off into numbered (usually red and black) spaces. When the ball stops, it indicates the result of a variety of wagers permitted by the game.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin rotula / roulette