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The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for June 11, 1999
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round robin
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A round robin is a sports tournament in which each contestant is
matched with every other contestant. It's also a petition in which
the signatures are arranged in a circle, like spokes of a wheel, in
order to conceal the order of signing.
A round robin has nothing to do with red-breasted birds. The name is
probably based on the French ruban (ribbon). In the seventeenth
century, French monarchs sometimes ordered the death of the first
person who signed a petition that displeased the Crown. In order to
disguise the order of signing, the names were written on an endless,
circular ribbon, and no one could be identified as the instigator of
the petition.
Later, sailors in the British Navy modified the round robin, using the
wheel spoke pattern to hide the order of signing. It was not until
the late 1800s that "round robin" was applied to sports tournaments.
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