Wiktionary

gyre

English

edit
WOTD – 8 June 2021

Pronunciation

edit
 
A gyre (sense 1.1) or whirlpool, one of the Naruto whirlpools regularly seen in the Naruto Strait, Japan.
 
A map showing the five major oceanwide gyres (sense 3); from left to right, they are the Indian Ocean, North Pacific and South Pacific, and North Atlantic and South Atlantic gyres.

Etymology 1

edit

Borrowed from Latin gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle; ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend; to curve”). The English word is a doublet of gyro and gyrus.[1]

Noun

edit

gyre (plural gyres)

  1. (chiefly literary, poetic)
    1. A swirling vortex.
    2. A circular or spiral motion; also, a circle described by a moving body; a revolution, a turn.
      Synonyms: circuit, whirl
  2. (anatomy, zootomy, archaic) Synonym of gyrus (“a fold or ridge on the cerebral cortex of the brain”).
  3. (oceanography) An ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner, especially one that is large-scale and observed in a major ocean.
    Most ships that tried to cross the Pacific in the past would get stuck in the gyres and never make it out.
Derived terms
edit
edit
Translations
edit
circle described by a moving body — see circuit,‎ revolution

Etymology 2

edit

From Late Middle English giren (“to turn (something) away; to cause (something) to revolve or rotate; to travel in a circle”),[2] from Old French girer (“to turn”), and directly from its etymon Latin gȳrāre, the present active infinitive of gȳrō (“to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle or revolve around”), from gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”) (see etymology 1)[3] + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).

Verb

edit

gyre (third-person singular simple present gyres, present participle gyring, simple past and past participle gyred) (literary, poetic)

  1. (intransitive) To spin around; to gyrate, to whirl.
    Synonyms: revolve, rotate
    • 1605, Michael Drayton, “[Songs from the ‘Shepherd’s Garland’.] From Eclogue ij.”, in Cyril Brett, editor, Minor Poems of Michael Drayton, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1907, →OCLC, pages 240–241, lines 4–8:
      The host of heauenly beautyes moue, / Depainted in their proper stories, / As well the fixd as wandring glories, / Which from their proper orbes not goe, / Whether they gyre swift or slowe: […]
    • 1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Looking-Glass House”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 21:
      Jabberwocky. / 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wa[b]e; / All mimsy were the borogoves, / And the mome raths outgrabe.
  2. (transitive, rare) To make (something) spin or whirl around; to spin, to whirl.
Derived terms
edit
Translations
edit

References

edit
  1. ^ “gyre, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “gyre, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. ^ “ǧīren, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. ^ “gyre, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “gyre, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

edit

See also

edit

Anagrams

edit

Latin

edit

Noun

edit

gȳre

  1. vocative singular of gȳrus
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=gyre&oldid=89903270"