roil (2009-05-23)

Part of Speech: verb

Pronunciation: [royL not rIL ]

Definition: To stir up the sediment in liquid, to muddy; to stir up the emotions, to anger someone.

Usage: First, let me get this off my chest: "Nothing roils me more than hearing someone pronounce this verb 'rile.'" It affects me slightly less if they pronounce "point," "pint," and "oil," "ile;" there is at least some dialectal consistency in that. Now, here is a quaint Southernism I just concocted to remind us of the original meaning of today's verb: "Don't roil the water where you may have to drink." It also serves to demonstrate that not all Southerners mispronounce this verb "rile."

Suggested Usage: English-speakers have long struggled with the diphthong [oi]. In Brooklyn and Queens it replaces [êr] today, e.g. "bird" becomes "boid," "third" becomes "toid," and "heard" becomes "hoid." In parts of the South just the opposite movement occurred in various dialects, the diphthong [oi] became [I] as in "eye." In these dialects "oil" was pronounced "ile," "point," "pint," "boil," "bile," while "roil" is pronounced "rile." In some British and Australian dialects, just the opposite switch may be observed. The only one of these that made it into mainstream English was "rile," which many US dictionaries now list as a variant pronunciation of "roil." Many US Americans do not even realize the correct pronunciation of this verb is "roil," hence today's selection. There is an adjective roily "turbid, muddy, stirred up."

Etymology: The origin of today's word is unknown but it is probably a dialectal variation of "roll." If so (with emphasis on "if"), then the split antedates Middle English when the two were already distinguished: rollen, roulen "roll" and roylen "roil." "Roll" was borrowed from Old French ro(u)ler, devolved from Vulgar Latin *rotulare "roll," based on Latin rotula, the diminutive of rota "wheel." This word family was adopted by English as "rotate," "rotor," "rotund," and "rotunda." Latin rotundus "round," after passing through the wheels of Roman, French, and English history, emerged as English "round," while a variant ended up naming the spiked wheel of a spur, the "rowel."