Dictionary

rotunda en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ɹə(ʊ)ˈtʌndə/ (UK)
• /ɹoʊˈtʌndə/ (US)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin rotunda, from rotundus (“round”). In the architectural sense, from Sancta Maria Rotunda (the name for a church in the Pantheon).

Meanings

1. A round building, usually small, often with a dome.
   • The rotunda begun but never completed by Abbot Wulfric (1047–59) at St Augustine’s Abbey as a link between the church of St Mary and that of St Peter and St Paul is an unusual and ambitious example of mid-eleventh-century English architecture which partly survives (fig. 4.6, top). […] Many of these rotundae are known to have had a special funerary function (as was the case at Canterbury). 1976, Bridget Cherry, “Ecclesiastical architecture”, in David M[ackenzie] Wilson, editor, The Archaeology of Anglo-Saxon England, London: Methuen & Co Ltd, →ISBN, pages 188–189:
   • Access to the shafts is gained via a brick entrance rotunda below a glass dome. The walls of these rotundae are built over the outer edge of caissons which hold the shafts; […] 2014 December, Mary Mills, “Foot Tunnels beneath the River Thames”, in Nick Catford, editor, Subterranea, number 37, Ascot, Berkshire: Subterranea Britannica, →ISSN, page 66, column 2:
   • The purely Greek character of the temple is revealed in the fact that there is no portico aligning the structure; Roman tholoi and rotundae are usually distinguished by a portico. 1998, “Antiquity”, in Bruce Almberg, Charles Earle, Michael Robinson, Katja Steiner, transl., edited by Stefan Grundmann, The Architecture of Rome: An Architectural History in 400 Individual Presentations, Stuttgart; London: Edition Axel Menges, →ISBN, page 29, column 2:
2. (qualifier:frequently capitalized) A Gothic typeface used in early printed books in Northern Italy, based on a rounded script developed in the 13th cent.; the manuscript hand on which this typeface was based.
3. (Philippines, alt-of, alternative) Alternative spelling of rotonda.
   alt of rotonda
   • TPLEX Rotunda is a roundabout located in Rosario, La Union.
4. A form of cupola that has pentagons rather than squares or rectangles.

Forms

Deriveds

birotunda · band rotunda

Relateds

fenestra rotunda · r rotunda

Translations (17)

la tholus (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · de Rotunda (typography: Gothic typeface based on a 13th-C. rounded script) · fi rotunda (typography: Gothic typeface based on a 13th-C. rounded script) · cs rotunda (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · de Rotunde (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · ca rotonda (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · ga cruinnteach (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · ru рото́нда (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · pl rotunda (typography: Gothic typeface based on a 13th-C. rounded script) · pl rotunda (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · de Halbgotisch (typography: Gothic typeface based on a 13th-C. rounded script) · pt rotunda (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · grc θόλος (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · fr rotonde (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · bg ротонда (architecture: round building, often with a dome) · de Rundgotisch (typography: Gothic typeface based on a 13th-C. rounded script) · fi rotunda (architecture: round building, often with a dome)

wikipedia: Pantheon, Rome