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5 dictionary results for: roster
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
ros·ter 
[ros-ter] Pronunciation Key
[ros-ter] Pronunciation Key –noun
| 1. | a list of persons or groups, as of military personnel or units with their turns or periods of duty. |
| 2. | any list, roll, or register: a roster of famous scientists; a roster of coming events. |
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
| ros·ter
(rŏs'tər, rô'stər) Pronunciation Key
n.
[Dutch rooster, gridiron, roster (from the ruled paper used for a roster), from roosten, to roast.] Word History: If we associate the roster of a football team with the word gridiron, it is not because the team's roster has the appearance of a football field. But etymologically at least a roster is a gridiron. Our word roster goes back to Dutch rooster, meaning "gridiron" (from the verb roosten, "to roast"), which was extended in sense to mean "a table, list." This extension was made because of the resemblance of a gridiron to a piece of paper divided by parallel lines that contains a list or table. (The application of gridiron to a football field is also based on similarity in appearance.) The earliest use in English (first recorded in 1727) for the word roster borrowed from Dutch was military, referring to a list or plan that outlined when officers, men, and bodies of troops should perform their turn of duty. Roster is no longer exclusively military in usage and can now be applied to members of a team scheduled to perform on the gridiron, baseball field, or other playing area. |
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
roster
roster
1727, from Du. rooster "table, list," originally "gridiron," from M.Du. roosten "to roast" (see roast). So called from the grid of lines drawn on a paper to make a list.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
| roster | |
noun | |
| a list of names; "his name was struck off the rolls" [syn: roll] |
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Roster
Ros"ter\, n. [Perhaps a corruption of register; or cf. roll.] (Mil.) A register or roll showing the order in which officers, enlisted men, companies, or regiments are called on to serve.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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