What is the meaning and origin of ‘round robin’?
Indians usually associate the term with sports. A round robin tournament is one in which every team plays every other team. In British English, however, the expression has another meaning. It is used to refer to a letter of complaint which many people have signed. It is in this sense that ‘round robin’ was first used in France. The expression comes from the French ‘ruban rond’ meaning ‘round ribbon’. In the old days, when the King was all-powerful, few people ever wrote a petition against him.
Anyone who dared to had his head chopped off. In case several people chose to sign the petition, the person whose signature appeared first was put to death. It was to avoid this fate that some clever officers came up with the idea of the round robin. What they did was to sign their names on a ribbon; and in order to confuse the King, they joined the two ends of the ribbon to make a circle. The round ribbon or robin was then glued to the bottom of the petition. This made it impossible for the King to figure out who had signed the petition first.
