English
around
Around comes from Middle English round ‘circle, round’, and goes back to Latin rotundus.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErotundus1‘round’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEretundus1‘round’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400reont1‘round’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500round2‘circle’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500around2
- Englishearliest quotation 1897around2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Middle English round
- 2 Wiktionary, English around
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and…”.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErotundusWiktionary, Middle English round‘round’
- Late Latinc. 200–600 CEretundusWiktionary, Middle English round‘round’
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400reontWiktionary, Middle English round‘round’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500roundWiktionary, English around‘circle’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500aroundWiktionary, English around
- Englishearliest quotation 1897aroundWiktionary, English around. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1897, Winston Churchill: “Then came a maid with hand-bag and shawls, and…”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with around, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
9 more relatives in the full family tree
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Today it means
prep Forming a circle or closed curve containing (something).
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “around”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Middle English round. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin rotundus / around