I had to make a “round robin” call recently, and that led me to wonder where this term came from. Some quick & basic web searches turned up the following information, but not much more:
“eighteenth century sailor’s term for a letter of complaint on which the names of those signing were written in a circle so that no one of them could be identified as the ringleader”
“nineteenth century - applied to tournaments in which every contestant plays every other at least once”
(note – these are paraphrased from the sources)
That second meaning is common, but the first seems more closely related the meaning of a round robin call, which is where one person passes along information to another, who passes it to the next person, and so on. Anyone have some ideas to the origin of this phrase, and who this Robin is?
It’s a corruption of rond ruban (round ribbon) from the French, according to Brewsters
What about Robin Hood’s barn? Seems to me there was a running game? Possibly English?
Myabe a character in a novel said something like, “Well, we certainly have been round RJobin Hood’s barn about that one.” Wild goose chase?
Round Robin from the Word Detective
Thanks for the information, and the link. I am unfamiliar with the Word Detective, but looks like some interesting reading.
Jois, my mother often used this turn of phrase. She explained it by saying Robin Hood kept his cattle (i.e. deer) in the great outdoors. Going around [or round or 'round] Robin Hood’s barn means going all around the great outdoors before reaching one’s goal. It can also be used to mean taking a circuitous route to a logical conclusion.
I was never quite satisfied with this explanation, but I’ve never found anything more convincing. I’ve never heard of a game called by that name.