Language Of Confusion: Going In Circles, Part I

Back into a multipart series! I’ve actually done the etymology of circle before, but it was long ago enough that it can be done as a refresher. Besides, there are a TON of other words related to it.
 
Circle itself showed up in the fourteenth century from the Old French cercle and classical Latin circulus, which just means circle. And I’m sure everyone has noticed that looks like circus, and there’s a reason for that. Circus showed up in the late fourteenth century where it meant large, open air enclosures for racing, not meaning what we’d call a circus until 1791. Circus was taken from classical Latin, as Romans used the word to refer to circular arenas where performances or contests took place. Circus is related to the Greek kirkos (also circus), which is thought to be from the Proto Indo European sker-. But not the “to cut” sker- we talked about as being the origin of carnage. Because words were stupid even back then, this sker- is completely different, and means to turn or bend.
 
Also related is circuit, which makes sense since a circuit is always supposed to be a closed circle. It showed up in the late fourteenth century, though back then it only referred to the circumference of something, even if it wasn’t circular in shape—no electricity back then, obviously, so they didn’t start using it in that way until 1746. It comes from the Old French circuit, from the classical Latin circuitus, circuit, circumference, or revolution, from the verb circuire/circumire, to go around. It’s why pretty much anything with the prefix circum- involves going around (i.e. circumvent, circumference). Circum literally means around in Latin, and it of course is from circus.
 
Now for some things not obviously related to circle… at least by the spelling. Crown showed up in the early twelfth century, so it’s pretty old. It comes from the Anglo French coroune, Old French corone, and classical Latin corona, which we also use in English. It’s from the Greek korone, crown, and that’s thought to also be from the to bend sker-. Because crowns and circles bend.
 
Sources
Online Etymology Dictionary
Google Translate
Omniglot
University of Texas at Austin Linguistic Research Center
University of Texas at San Antonio’s page on Proto Indo European language
Fordham University