Etymograph

English

roulette

Roulette comes from French roulette ‘roulette, little wheel’, from rouler ‘to roll’, and ultimately from Latin rotula.

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErotula1
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500rotulāre1
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400roeler1‘to roll’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentrouler2‘to roll’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentroulette3‘roulette, little wheel’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1982roulette3

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, French rouler
  2. 2 Wiktionary, French roulette
  3. 3 Wiktionary, English roulette
  4. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1982, Donna Hilts, TV Report On Vaccine Stirs Bitter Controversy: “Doctors and health officials said that the WRC-TV documentary,…”.

Earlier history not traced here. See Wiktionary.

Lineage

  1. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CErotulaWiktionary, French rouler
  2. Medieval Latinc. 600–1500rotulāreWiktionary, French rouler
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400roelerWiktionary, French rouler‘to roll’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentroulerWiktionary, French roulette‘to roll’
  5. Frenchc. 1600–presentrouletteWiktionary, English roulette‘roulette, little wheel’
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1982rouletteWiktionary, English roulette. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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.

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Medieval Latin rotulāre

roll, 2 more

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.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “roulette”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entries for French rouler, French roulette. 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 rotula / roulette

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