Rollout

How to spell rollout

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rollout

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rollout mean?

1. nounThe official introduction or staged release of a new product, service, system, or plan.

Rollout in a sentence

• The company delayed the rollout of its banking app until the security audit finished.

• A phased rollout let the hospital train staff before the new records system went live.

Where does rollout come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a modern closed compound built from two very old English elements. The verb 'roll' came into English in the 1300s from Old French roller or rouler, meaning 'to turn over and over', which traced back to the Latin rotulare, itself from rotula, a 'little wheel', a diminutive of rota meaning 'wheel'. The second element, 'out', is a thoroughly native Old English word (ut) carrying the sense of 'forth' or 'into the open'. The figurative noun 'rollout' is a twentieth century coinage: it first described literally wheeling a finished aircraft out of its hangar to be revealed, then broadened in business and technology to mean the staged public introduction of a product, service, or plan. The link back to rota, the wheel, is a handy memory cue: a rollout sets something rolling out into the world.

How the word is built

• roll (to move on wheels/turn over)
• out (forth, into the open); a closed compound noun