Etymograph

English

rota

Rota comes from Latin rota ‘wheel’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- ‘to run, roll’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*Hreth₂-1‘to run, roll’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*Hróth₂-eh₂1reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*rotā1reconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErota2‘wheel’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2014rota2

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, Latin rota
  2. 2 Wiktionary, English rota
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2014, Paul Rees, ‘We got off the coach and the National Front was there … Peo: “[The manager] instituted a rota for having the players…”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*Hreth₂-Wiktionary, Latin rota‘to run, roll’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*Hróth₂-eh₂Wiktionary, Latin rotareconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*rotāWiktionary, Latin rotareconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErotaWiktionary, English rota‘wheel’
  5. Englishearliest quotation 2014rotaWiktionary, English rota. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 2014, Paul Rees, ‘We got off the coach and the National Front was there … Peo: “[The manager] instituted a rota for having the players…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- ‘to run, roll’

rash, 18 more

through Latin rota ‘wheel’

roll, rodeo, rueda, rotund, 15 more

Today it means

noun A schedule that allocates some task, responsibility or (rarely) privilege between a set of people according to a (possibly periodic) calendar.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “rota”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin rota. 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 / Proto-Indo-European *Hreth₂- / rota

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