Etymology

wheel of fortune

wheel of for·tune

Today it means: A gambling or lottery device consisting of a wheel which is spun horizontally to determine, by its stopping position, whether a gambler will receive one of the prizes marked around its circumference. Full definition →

Latin rota Fortūnae
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wheel of fortune · noun, proper noun1

From Wheel of Fortune, referring to the spinning of the Roman goddess Fortuna’s wheel which determined people’s fortunes.

Wheel of Fortune · proper noun2

  1. Latin · calque ofrota Fortūnae
  2. English todayWheel of Fortune

From wheel + of + Fortune (“the Roman goddess Fortuna”), a calque of Latin rota Fortūnae (literally “Fortuna’s wheel”), from rota (“wheel”) + Fortūnae (the genitive dative singular of Fortūna (“the Roman goddess of fate, fortune, and luck”)).

Words from the same roots

Latinrota Fortūnae all →

rota Fortunae

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.