tour

pronunciation

How to pronounce tour in British English: UK [tʊə(r)] word uk audio image

How to pronounce tour in American English: US [tʊr] word us audio image

Noun:

a journey or route all the way around a particular place or area
a time for working (after which you will be relieved by someone else)
a period of time spent in military service
Verb:

make a tour of a certain place

Word Origin

tour: tour: [14] Etymologically, a tour is a ‘circular movement’. The word comes via Old French tour from Latin tornus ‘lathe’, which also produced English turn. It was not used for a ‘journey of visits’ – literally a ‘circuitous journey’ – until the 17th century (the term grand tour, denoting a lengthy journey around western Europe formerly undertaken by fashionable young men, ostensibly for educational purposes, is first recorded in the mid-18th century, but the derivative tourist does not crop up until about 1800). Tournament [13] and tourney [13] both go back ultimately to a Vulgar Latin derivative of tornus, the underlying etymological notion being of the combatants ‘turning’ or wheeling round to face each other.And tourniquet [17] probably comes from the same source.=> tournament, tourniquet, turn

tour (n.): c. 1300, "a turn, a shift on duty," from Old French tor, tourn, tourn "a turn, trick, round, circuit, circumference," from torner, tourner "to turn" (see turn (v.)). Sense of "a continued ramble or excursion" is from 1640s. Tour de France as a bicycle race is recorded in English from 1916 (Tour de France Cycliste), distinguished from a motorcar race of the same name. The Grand Tour, a journey through France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy formerly was the finishing touch in the education of a gentleman.

tour (v.): 1746, "make a tour, travel about," from tour (n.). Related: Toured; touring.