round robin

Meanings

1. Senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around.
2. A document (usually containing a complaint or petition) originally with the signatures arranged in a circle, and later often alphabetically, to disguise the order of signing and to indicate that the signatories are collectively responsible for it.
3. A letter which is reproduced and sent to several people; specifically, one containing personal news sent at a particular time of year, often Christmas; a circular letter.
4. A letter or piece of writing which is circulated among members of a group, to which each person makes a contribution before sending it to another person; also, a packet of letters circulated regularly in a fixed order among a group (often family members), whereby each person replaces their previous contribution with a new letter, and then sends the packet to the next recipient.
5. A form of trading involving a packet of items which is circulated among members of a group, whereby each person take the items they want and replaces them with items of similar value, and then sends the packet to the next recipient.
6. A long, often tedious, list or piece of writing; a laundry list, a litany.
7. A method of making use of several similar subsystems, assigning tasks to each of them in turn (for example, sending data to a destination down several communication links in turn to achieve greater combined speed).
8. A form of bet on the full set of possible combinations from a group of events, racehorses, teams, etc., such as the outcomes A and B, B and C, and A and C from a group consisting of A, B, and C.
9. The MIDI technique of using different sampled versions of the same sound for successive notes, to avoid an unnaturally repetitive effect.
10. A method of dividing loot among a party of players by having the game assign loot, or an enemy corpse to loot, to each player in turn.
11. A small pancake.
12. A group activity in which the members take turns to perform an action.

Etymology

From round (adjective) + robin. Sense 1 (“senses relating to something with a round shape, or which goes around”) is connected with the word round, while sense 2 (“senses relating to people, animals, or plants”) is connected with some English regional senses of the word robin where it is used in the names of various fish and plants which are not related to the red-breasted bird. However, apart from the alliteration, it is not clear why the two words came to be linked together in compounds. It is possible that the term was first used to refer to sense 1.13.1 (“consecrated host”) which appears to be the earliest attested sense, and then extended to other senses either having the sense of round or robin. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the term is a corruption of French ruban rond (literally “round ribbon”), referring to the practice in 17th-century France of signing on ribbons which were then attached to petitions of grievances in a circular manner: see sense 1.1. However, this etymology does not explain the senses of the term unrelated to a signed document.