Pronunciation: FREE-kuhr, noun
Notes: A word I happen to know (probably getting obsolete)
Yesterday’s word
The word rote means
- a mechanical or unthinking way of doing something
- the sound of surf
- a medieval stringed instrument of Celtic origin (also called crwth or crowd)
First usage
The first and third definitions came into English in the mid-1300s; the middle definition came into English in the early 1600s
Background / Comments
I mostly know our word in the phrase “learn by rote”, so I knew the first definition. I have never heard of the other two. It turns out that each definition has a different origin: the first one is obscure; the second one is thought to have come from Scandinavia; and the third one came from the Middle French word rote.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 