rôle

See also: role and rolé

English

Noun

rôle (plural rôles)

1. (often poetic) Dated spelling of role.
   • 1920, Edward Carpenter, Pagan and Christian Creeds, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co., page 81:

     We have referred to the Bull many times, both in his astronomical aspect as pioneer of the Spring-Sun, and in his more direct rôle as plougher of the fields[.]

   • 1924, W. E. B. DuBois, The Gift of Black Folk: The Negroes in the Making of America, The Stratford Co.: The Stratford Co., page iv:

     Finally the Negro had played a peculiar spiritual rôle in America as a sort of living, breathing test of our ideals and an example of the faith, hope and tolerance of our religion.

   • 1955, Graham J. Brealey, Michael Kasha, “The Rôle of Hydrogen Bonding in the n → π* Blue-shift Phenomenon”, in Journal of the American Chemical Society, volume 77, issue 17, 4462-4468:
   • 2006, Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, Phonological change in Optimality Theory, in Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of language and linguistics [2nd edn., vol. 9], 497–505. Oxford: Elsevier.

     Thus, diachronic reductionists follow Ohala in emphasizing the rôle of the parser in phonologization and downplaying the contribution of higher principles of grammatical organization.

   • 2012, Stephen MacLean, A cheer for constitutional monarchy's restraint on government, Adam Smith Institute:

     As the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations wind down, it may be well to reflect on an aspect of public choice theory which supports constitutional monarchy — principally its rôle as a brake upon self-aggrandising politicians.

   • 2016, Pavel Iosad, Rule scattering and vowel length in Northern Romance, in Papers in Historical Phonology, volume 1, 218–237. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.

     Nevertheless, it can be argued that Loporcaro's (2015) rejection of any rôle for phonological computation in establishing the observed distribution of vowel length in Northern Romance goes too far in the other direction.

Related terms

• rôleplay

Anagrams

• Orel, Orle, Orël, eorl, lore, orle, relo

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French rolle, from Old French role.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁol/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ol

Noun

rôle m (plural rôles)

1. role
2. character

Derived terms

• à tour de rôle
• jeu de rôle
• physique du rôle

 

Descendants

• → Catalan: rol
• → English: role
  • → Spanish: rol
• → Greek: ρόλος (rólos)
• → Turkish: rol

Further reading

• “rôle”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.