▪ I. rote, n.1 Now only Hist.
(rəʊt)
[a. OF. rote (rothe, route), = Prov. and med.L. rota, rotta; also MDu. rote, MLG. rotte, rode, MHG. rote, rott(e, OHG. rota, rotta. The original form was prob. *hrotta, an early Teutonic adoption of the Celtic word recorded by Venantius Fortunatus (6th cent.) as chrotta, on which see crowd n.1]
A mediæval musical instrument, probably of the violin class.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 7408 Dauid cuth on sere-kin note, Bath he cuth on harpe and rote. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1082 Organes & pypes, & rial ryngande rotes & þe reken fyþel. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 303 He tawhte hir til sche was certein Of Harpe, of Citole and of Rote. c 1407 Lydg. Reson & Sens. 2394 He kan..Touche be crafte, and nat be rote, Harpe and lute, fythel and Rote. c 1450 Holland Howlat 759 The rote, and the recordour,..The trumpe, and the talburn. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. x. 3 Argument worthy of Mæonian quill; Or rather worthy of great Phoebus rote. 1596 Ibid. iv. ix. 6 There did he find..The faire Pœana playing on a Rote. |
| 1814 Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xxiii, The lad can deftly touch the lute, And on the rote and viol play. 1823 Roscoe tr. Sismondi's Lit. Eur. (1846) I. v. 128 Psaltry, symphony, and rote, Help to charm the listening throng. 1859 Jephson Brittany vii. 93 To converse, or sing ancient Breton lays to the rote. 1884 Heron-Allen Violin Making 62 The only difference between the earliest crwths..and the latest rotes..seems to be the addition of the bow and finger-board. |
▪ II. rote, n.2
(rəʊt)
Also 4–5 roote, 5–6 root, 5 rot, 5–7 roat(e.
[Of obscure origin; there is no evidence to confirm the suggestions that it is a. OF. rote, route route, way, or ad. L. rota wheel.]
† 1. a. Custom, habit, practice. Obs.
| c 1315 Shoreham iii. 210 Þy wykked rote, Wanne þou ne halst þy masseday, As god hyt haþ y-hote. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 45 Thilke art which Spatula is hote, And used is of comun rote Among Paiens. Ibid. 50 He..broght hem into such a rote, That upon him thei bothe assote. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 437/2 Root, of vse and custome. |
† b. Mechanical practice or performance; regular procedure; mere routine. Obs. (Cf. sense 2.)
| 1581 Mulcaster Positions xli. (1887) 242 By the meere shadow, and roat of these sciences. 1693 Evelyn De La Quint. Compl. Gard. I. 3 A presumptuous Pratling Ignorance, upheld by some wretched Rote. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 80 Experience, Tryal upon the Ground, and a certain Rote,..necessary to this End. 1768 Woman of Honor II. 81 His education had proceeded in the common rote through school and college. Ibid. II. 189 He took the rote of forms to be the very quintessence of affairs. |
† c. A rigmarole. Obs. rare.
| 14.. Sir Beues (MS. S) 1191 Men seye..in olde roote Þat wimmannes bolt is sone schote. 1681 Peace & Truth 14 The Church of Rome hath turned Prayer into a meer Rote or Charm of unintelligible Words. |
2. by rote, in a mechanical manner, by routine, esp. by the mere exercise of memory without proper understanding of, or reflection upon, the matter in question; also, † with precision, by heart. a. With say, sing, play, etc.
The meaning of the first quot. is not clear.
| 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2207 Þat gere as I trowe, Is ryched at þe reuerence, me renk to mete, bi rote. c 1394 P. Pl. Crede 377 A ribaut..Þat can nouȝt wel reden His rewle ne his respondes, but be pure rote. 1444 Pol. Poems (Rolls) II. 217 Suych labourerys synge may be roote, ‘Alle goo we stille, the cok hath lowe shoon’. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 160 Yf it were, than I myght..saye my seruyce by rote and custome. 1577–82 Breton Toyes Idle Head Wks. (Grosart) I. 27/1, I did not sing one noate, except it were by roate. 1628 Earle Microcosm., Shop-keeper (Arb.) 54 Hee tels you lyes by rote. 1662 Playford Skill Mus. ii. (1674) 110 To learn to play by rote or ear without Book. 1715 De Foe Fam. Instruct. i. vi. (1841) I. 112 We can all repeat the Commandments by rote. 1773 H. More Search after Happiness ii. 141, I talk'd by rote the jargon of the schools. 1832 H. Martineau Hill & Valley vii. 111 The young ladies..played their duet more by rote than con amore this night. 1856 Hawthorne Eng. Note-bks. (1870) II. 160 This guide..did his business less by rote..than any guide I ever met. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 436 The college..where little boys learn to repeat by rote the Koran from end to end. |
b. With know, get, learn, etc.
| c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 329 Ther-to he koude endite, and make a thyng,..And euery statut koude he pleyn by rote. ― Prioress' T. 1712 He..herkned ay the wordes and the noote, Til he the firste vers koude al by rote. c 1440 Partonope 3215 The maner of spyces I know by rote. 1531 Tindale Prol. Ep. Rom. Wks. 39, I thinke it meete that euery christen man..know it, by roate and without the boke. 1596 Spenser F.Q. iv. ix. 6 Singing all her sorrow to the note, As she had learned readily by rote. 1624 Heywood Gunaik. viii. 375 The Psalmes of David which shee had almost ad unguem and by roat. 1663 Butler Hud. i. i. 135 All which he understood by Rote, And as occasion serv'd, would quote. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 38 ¶12 He has by Rote, and at Second-hand, all that can be said of any Man of Figure, Wit, and Virtue in Town. 1781 Cowper Conversat. 7 Words learn'd by rote a parrot may rehearse. 1840 Carlyle Heroes (1858) 321 Their commonplace doctrines, which they have learned by logic, by rote, at secondhand. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. iii. 102 In time we learn by rote the lessons which we had to spell out in our youth. |
3. attrib., as rote knowledge, rote-learning, rote-lesson, rote-work; rote-learned, rote-like, adjs.; † by-rote babble, lesson; rote learning, also spec. in Psychol., the learning by rote of meaningless material designed to be free of associations, as a technique in the study of learning.
| 1598 E. Guilpin Skial. (1878) 45 T' heare a Parrat cry Her by-roate lesson of like curtesie. 1641 Milton Animadv. Wks. 1851 III. 201 To pray in his own words without being..fescu'd to a formal injunction of his rote-lesson. 1669 Penn No Cross Wks. 1782 II. 197 A little by-rote-babble, with..an hour's talk in other men's words. 1848 Eliza Cook To Charlotte Cushman iii, No rote-learned sighing. 1862 G. P. Marsh Orig. & Hist. Eng. Lang. 25 A rote-knowledge of paradigms and definitions. 1864 Knight Passages Work. Life I. i. 23 The dreary life of a day-school.., for the education was altogether rote-work. 1876 Grant Burgh Sch. Scot. ii. xiii. 401 The rote-learning of rules once so universal. 1914 Brit. Jrnl. Psychol. VII. 253 (title) The value of distributed repetitions in rote learning. 1940 G. Katona Organizing & Memorizing vii. 164 We shall study the classic material used in investigating the memory, that is, rote learning of nonsense syllables. 1954 W. Faulkner Fable 35 He said, repeated, rote-like, cold, unemphasised, almost telegraphic: ‘Comité des Forges’. 1970 Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. LXXXII. 54 The similarity of the present results to those in the rote literature argues against the sharp distinction drawn between meaningful and rote learning by Ausubel. |
▪ III. † rote, n.3 Obs.—1
[a. OF. rote, var. of route rout n.1 Hence also MDu., MLG., MHG., MSw. rote, MDa. rode.]
A company, squadron.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 311 [Creta] was þe firste lond þat..tauȝte horse men to ryde in rotes [L. turmas]. |
▪ IV. † rote, n.4 Obs. rare.
[ad. med.L. rota (Du Cange).]
A certain measure or weight.
| c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. ii. lxvii. 84 Take..þe Ferthe party of a Rote, and put all in x Rotes of swete water. Ibid. 85. |
▪ V. rote, n.5 Now rare.
(rəʊt)
Also 6 root.
[ad. L. rota rota, or (in sense 2) a. F. rote.]
† 1. A wheel used as an instrument of torture or punishment. Obs.
| 1526 R. Whitford Martiloge (1893) 43 All theyr membres & hole body stretched vpon a rote or turnyng whele. a 1575 Diurn. Occurr. (Bann. Cl.) 250 James Cadder.., being..tane in Striueling in maner foirsaid, wes brokin on the root. |
† 2. R.C. Ch. = rota 3. Obs.
| 1528 Gardiner in Burnet Hist. Ref., Rec. (Pocock) I. 106 One Jacobus Symonet, dean of the rote. 1529 More Dyaloge iii. Wks. 216/1 Sauyng the premunyre, we myghte haue it tryed in the rote at Rome. 1787 C. Smith Romance Real Life II. 130 At the court of Rome, the department called the Rote, allowed the validity of her marriage. |
3. Rotation; turn. rare—1.
| 1831 Fraser's Mag. III. 508 They at first resolved That each should govern in diurnal rote. |
▪ VI. rote, n.6 Now U.S.
(rəʊt)
[See rut n.3]
The roaring of the sea or surf.
| 1610 R. Niccols England's Eliza cclxx. 837 While the seas rote doth ring their dolefull knell. 1682 J. Flavel Fear 24 Such a noise as the rote of the sea. 1855 Haliburton Nature & Human N. 210 When..the rote is on the beach, it tells me it is the voice of the south wind giving notice of rain. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 193 X. walked away, rumbling inwardly like the rote of the sea heard afar. 1869 T. W. Higginson Oldport Romance xviii, She could only distinguish the rote on the distant beach. 1909 Newfoundland Q. Dec. 9/1 The fishermen are accustomed, in foggy weather, to find their bearings by carefully listening to the rout of the sea on the shore, which they (very correctly) call rote, or rut. 1941 T. S. Eliot Dry Salvages i. 8 The menace and caress of wave that breaks on water, The distant rote in the granite teeth. 1965 S. E. Morison in Amer. Neptune Oct. 236 Often have I heard a Maine man say, ‘Sea's making up. Hear that rote!’ Ibid., T. S. Eliot doubtless listened to the rote from his parents' house, during the windless calm after a storm, or on a ‘weather-breeder’ day when swells from the eastward begin crashing on the ‘granite teeth’ of Cape Ann before a storm breaks. |
▪ VII. † rote, a.
obs. variant of rotten a.
| c 1386 Chaucer Sec. Nun's T. 17 (Cambr. MS.), Ȝit seen men weel..That ydilnesse is rote slogardye. Ibid. 228 Neuere mo ne schal they rote be. |
▪ VIII. rote, v.1
(rəʊt)
Also 7 roat.
[f. rote n.2]
1. trans. To repeat, to run over, to rattle off, from memory. Also absol.
| 1593 Drayton Ecl. i. 16 Ravish'd to heare the warbling Birds to roat. 1630 ― Muses Eliz. Nymphal ii. 121 If by chance a Tune you roate, 'Twill foote it finely to your note. 1681 Baxter Answ. Dodwell iv. 57 Did you think that your roteing over the name to them that deny the thing, would make a wise man change his Religion? 1816 J. Gilchrist Philos. Etym. 134 It is really to be wished that authors would think more and rote less. Ibid. 140 The usual violations of usage might be put into a sixpenny piece to be roted off by the grammatical disciple. 1838 Tupper Proverb. Philos., Of Memory iii, Memory is not wisdom: idiots can rote volumes. |
† 2. To learn or fix by rote. Obs. rare.
| 1607 Shakes. Cor. iii. ii. 55 Now it lyes you on to speake to th' people..with such words That are but roated in your Tongue. 1775 T. Sheridan Art Reading 283 Not..able to repeat even what is perfectly roted on the memory. |
Hence ˈroting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1816 J. Gilchrist Philos. Etym. 186 Can our roting, repeating scholar make Latin as Cicero made it? 1817 ― Intell. Patrimony 15 You will witness much reading, roting and repeating among those who pretend to learning. |
▪ IX. rote, v.2
(rəʊt)
[ad. L. rotāre, f. rota wheel.]
† 1. trans. To rotate. Obs.
| 1578 Banister Hist. Man i. 27 When the cubit is at furthest extended, the posteriour and great Processe thereof, is roted and wheled. |
2. intr. To go out or in by rotation or turn.
| a 1697 Aubrey Lives, J. Harrington (1898) I. 291 Now this modell upon rotation was:—that the third part of the Senate should rote out by ballot every yeare. 1806 W. Taylor in Ann. Rev. IV. 240 Of three County Members one might rote out yearly. 1860 Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. clxxi. III. 199 Here the only way seems to be, that instead of roting out, as was the device of our ancestors, men should for once in a way rote in. |
▪ X. † rote, v.3 Obs.
[Cf. rottle v.]
? To flutter.
| c 1330 Arth. & Merl. 3867 (Kölbing), Þer miȝt men se þe baners roten, Þe stedes forþ wel ȝern schoten. |
▪ XI. rote
obs. f. root, rot, rout, rut.