rota Fortunae

English

Etymology

An illustration of the rota Fortuna or Wheel of Fortune being turned by the Queen of Fortune, from a mid-15th-century version of John Lydgate’s Troy Book.

Unadapted borrowing from Latin rota Fortūnae (literally “Fortuna’s wheel”), from rota (“wheel”) + Fortūnae (the genitive dative singular of Fortūna (“the Roman goddess of fate, fortune, and luck”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɹəʊtə ˈfɔːt͡ʃuːni/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɹoʊtə ˈfoɹt͡ʃuni/, [-ɾə]
• Hyphenation: ro‧ta For‧tunae

Proper noun

rota Fortunae

1. (mythology, philosophy) Synonym of Wheel of Fortune (“the mythological wheel turned randomly by Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fate, fortune, and luck, to determine people's fortunes which were thus unpredictable”)
   • 1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, chapter 2, in A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN, section I, page 27:

     As a medievalist Ignatius believed in the rota Fortunae, or wheel of fortune, a central concept in De Consolatione Philosophiae, the philosophical work which had laid foundation for medieval thought. […] Was his wheel rapidly spinning downward?

Further reading

• rota Fortunae on Wikipedia.Wikipedia