circus

Borrowed from Latin circus (“ring, circle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker-, *ker- (“to turn, to bend”).[1][2] Doublet of cirque. Displaced native Old English hringsetl (literally “ring seat”).

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• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜːkəs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝkəs/
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)kəs

circus (plural circuses or (rare) circusses or (rare) circi)

1. A traveling company of performers that may include acrobats, clowns, trained animals, and other novelty acts, that gives shows usually in a circular tent. [from late 18th c.]

   The circus will be in town next week.

2. A round open space in a town or city where multiple streets meet.

   Oxford Circus in London is at the north end of Regent Street.

3. (figurative) A spectacle; a noisy fuss; a chaotic and/or crowded place.
   • 2009, Christine Brooks, A Quiet Village, page 81:

     The village would be turned into a circus over this. He groaned, it was just the sort of case the media had a field day over. He had to get the whole thing sorted fast before anyone got wind of it.

4. (historical) In the ancient Roman Empire, a building for chariot racing.
5. (military, World War II) A code name for bomber attacks with fighter escorts in the day time. The attacks were against short-range targets with the intention of occupying enemy fighters and keeping their fighter units in the area concerned.
6. (obsolete) Circuit; space; enclosure.
   • 1817, Lord Byron, The Lament of Tasso:

     The narrow circus of my dungeon wall.

• (open space): concourse

circus (third-person singular simple present circuses or circusses, present participle circusing or circussing, simple past and past participle circused or circussed)

1. To take part in a circus; or to be displayed as if in a circus

• Curcis, Ruccis

Borrowed from Latin circus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsɪr.kʏs/

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• Hyphenation: cir‧cus

circus n (plural circussen, diminutive circusje n)

1. circus (company of performers; place where this company performs)

• circusartiest
• circusclown
• circusdier
• circusshow
• circustent

• Afrikaans: sirkus
• → Indonesian: sirkus

• beestenspel

Likely borrowed from Ancient Greek κρίκος (kríkos), κίρκος (kírkos, “ring”),[1] from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈkir.kus/, [ˈkɪrkʊs̠]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈt͡ʃir.kus/, [ˈt͡ʃirkus]

circus m (genitive circī); second declension

1. a circular line or orbit; circle, ring
2. a racecourse or space where games are held, especially one that is round
3. the spectators in a circus; a circus

Second-declension noun.

Learned borrowings:

• Walther von Wartburg (1928–2002) “cĭrcus”, in Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch (in German), volume 2: C Q K, page 708

• “circus”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “circus”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• circus in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “circus”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “circus”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin