gyre

English
WOTD – 8 June 2021

Pronunciation
A gyre (sense 1.1) or whirlpool, one of the Naruto whirlpools regularly seen in the Naruto Strait, Japan.
A map showing the five major oceanwide gyres (sense 3); from left to right, they are the Indian Ocean, North Pacific and South Pacific, and North Atlantic and South Atlantic gyres.
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /d͡ʒaɪ.ə/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) enPR: jīər IPA(key): /d͡ʒaɪ.ɚ/
  • Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)
  • Hyphenation: gy‧re

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Latin gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”), from Ancient Greek γῦρος (gûros, “circle; ring”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend; to curve”). The English word is a doublet of gyro and gyrus.[1]

Noun

gyre (plural gyres)

  1. (chiefly literary, poetic)
    1. A swirling vortex.
    2. A circular or spiral motion; also, a circle described by a moving body; a revolution, a turn.
      Synonyms: circuit, whirl
  2. (anatomy, zootomy, archaic) Synonym of gyrus (“a fold or ridge on the cerebral cortex of the brain”)
  3. (oceanography) An ocean current caused by wind which moves in a circular manner, especially one that is large-scale and observed in a major ocean.
Derived terms
Translations
circle described by a moving body — see circuit,‎ revolution
synonym of gyrus — see gyrus

Etymology 2

From Late Middle English giren (“to turn (something) away; to cause (something) to revolve or rotate; to travel in a circle”),[2] from Old French girer (“to turn”), and directly from its etymon Latin gȳrāre, the present active infinitive of gȳrō (“to turn in a circle, rotate; to circle or revolve around”), from gȳrus (“circle; circular motion”) (see etymology 1)[3] + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs).

Verb

gyre (third-person singular simple present gyres, present participle gyring, simple past and past participle gyred) (literary, poetic)

  1. (intransitive) To spin around; to gyrate, to whirl.
    Synonyms: revolve, rotate
    • 1605, Michael Drayton, “[Songs from the ‘Shepherd’s Garland’.] From Eclogue ij.”, in Cyril Brett, editor, Minor Poems of Michael Drayton, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published 1907, →OCLC, pages 240–241, lines 4–8:
      The host of heauenly beautyes moue, / Depainted in their proper stories, / As well the fixd as wandring glories, / Which from their proper orbes not goe, / Whether they gyre swift or slowe: […]
    • 1871 December 27 (indicated as 1872), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Looking-Glass House”, in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 21:
      Jabberwocky. / 'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves / Did gyre and gimble in the wa[b]e; / All mimsy were the borogoves, / And the mome raths outgrabe.
  2. (transitive, rare) To make (something) spin or whirl around; to spin, to whirl.
Derived terms
  • gyring (adjective, noun)
  • gyringly
Translations
to spin around — see gyrate,‎ whirl
to make (something) spin or whirl around — see spin,‎ whirl

References
  1. “gyre, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “gyre, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  2. “ǧīren, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  3. “gyre, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “gyre, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

See also

Anagrams

Latin

Noun

gȳre

  1. vocative singular of gȳrus
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