rota Fortunae en · PROPN
Pronunciation
- [-ɾə] (General-American)
- /ˌɹəʊtə ˈfɔːt͡ʃuːni/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /ˌɹoʊtə ˈfoɹt͡ʃuni/ (General-American)
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from 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”)).
Meanings
-
Synonym of Wheel of Fortune (“the mythological wheel turned randomly by Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fate, fortune, and luck, to determine people's fortunes which were thus unpredictable”).
As a medievalist Ignatius believed in the rota Fortunae, or wheel of fortune, a central concept in De Consolatione Philosophiae, the philosophical work which had laid foundation for medieval thought. […] Was his wheel rapidly spinning downward?
1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 2, in A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN, section I, page 27: