Between Laps and Names: the Curious Origin of “the Roundabout”

In the midst of urban chaos, the roundabout seems to be only a respite in traffic. A circle of concrete, perhaps adorned with a garden, statue or fountain. But its name holds a deeper history. It was not born in road engineering, but in the gardens of the European aristocracy. The word “gloriet” has noble roots, literally. It comes from the French gloriette, diminutive of ggloire (glory), and referred to small decorative pavilions used in the ga…