Roundheel

[Dr. Goodword]

• roundheel •

Pronunciation: rawnd-heel • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: (US Slang) A pushover, softie, an inept person, easily persuaded, outwitted, or overpowered.

Notes: Here is a US slang expression found only in the Merriam-Webster dictionary and a few British dictionaries. The Oxford English Dictionary has it well-documented from 1923 to 2009. We haven't decided how to spell it: two words (round heel), hyphenated (round-heel, or one word (as above)? It is often used in the plural referring to one person, a 'little miss roundheels'. The adjective is roundheeled.

In Play: The general meaning of today's word is "pushover": "Clay Potts is such a roundheel for blondes, he'll do whatever they tell him to do." When applied to women, it usually implies sexual promiscuity: "Carmen Ghia is a roundheel specializing in older men of questionable sexuality."

Word History: This word entered English around the 1920s from boxing slang. A fighter with round heels was one his opponent could easily knock down. Round was borrowed from French rond "round", which French whittled down from Latin rotundus, the adjective for rota "wheel". German and Dutch borrowed the same word for their rund and rond, respectively. Latin got its rota from PIE ret-/rot- "to roll", source also of Sanskrit ratha- "wagon", Irish roth "wheel", Lithuanian ratas "wheel, circle, ring", and German Rad "wheel". Heel goes back to PIE kel-/kol- "prominence, hill, high", source also of English hill, Russian kholm "hill, mound", Lithuanian kelti "to raise, lift", Greek kolophon "summit", and Latin culmen "summit, top", which underlies the English borrowing culminate. (Today's rare but up-and-coming Good Word resulted from a recommendation of Professor Kyu Ho Youm, Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair at the University of Oregon.)

[bbeeton]

Not a comment on today's word, but on the name of the female person in the example.

When I was a college undergraduate, a local friend offered to drive me to an outing in his Karmann Ghia. Since "local" was Rhode Island, this invitation was rendered with the local accent: "Common Gear". That seemed quite an interesting name for what was likely an English sports car. Half right! (It was a convertible, and was also used, in season, to convey a surfboard, which might have been longer than the car.)

[LukeJavan8]

I had totally forgotten about that make/model.
Thanks for the memory.

[Philip Hudson]

bbeeton: The pronunciation of Karmann Ghia as Common Gear might be heard here in the hinterlands. However, there was little cause to use the word here as no one had ever seen or even heard of one.
I have no knowledge of round heels with this definition.

[David Myer]

And not to be confused with Oliver Cromwell's roundheads, who were certainly no pushover. And don't mention the man to the Irish. He did despicable things when he got there.

[LukeJavan8]

The movie "Cromwell" is currently on Netflix with Richard Harris
in the lead. No pushover. He ruled with an iron hand for six years, and
as the movie says at the end "Britain has never been the same".

[Philip Hudson]

David Myer: Roundheel also reminded me of the Roundheads. Folks liked to kill other folks then. Many still do. Were the Roundheads worse than the Cavileers. My computer tells me that the conflict occasioned 200,000 deaths.

[David Myer]

I would guess that the 200 thousand deaths would have been in direct battles. Many more were exterminated by repression and violent subjugation. Your number, Philip, is what, ten percent of the deaths in a Covid pandemic?

[LukeJavan8]

Or now, sadly, Ukraine.

[Philip Hudson]

I have Ukrainian friends. I am deeply concerned.