roundyadj.
/ˈraʊndi/, U.S. /ˈraʊndi/ 1. Originally poetic. Rounded; of a round shape.
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the world > space > shape > curvature > roundness > [adjective]
roundc1300
rotund?a1425
orbicular?1440
rotounda1450
trendec1450
orbical1582
roundya1586
rundled1598
orby?1609
orbic1619
rotundal1624
roundwise1633
orbiculatea1650
orbiculated1656
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) iii. xvi. sig. Rr6 Her roundy sweetly swelling lippes a little trembling.
1600 J. Weever Faunus & Melliflora sig. E3 His ey-browes touch her roundie speaking eyne, Kissing her necke and lippes like Corraline.
1821 J. Clare Village Minstrel II. 55 Welcome, red and roundy sun, Dropping lowly in the west.
1882 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 90 As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring.
1947 Virginia Q. Rev. Spring 225 They saw the tall thin figure of an aged man, with grey side-chops, in a roundy black hat and a swallow-tailed coat.
1975 J. B. Keane Lett. of Matchmaker 20 There's roundy yokes called oysters what is swallowed alive out of their shells.
2006 Icon May 145/4 There are no roundy corners or space-race styling, but the clapboard-covered ideal homes on show are mass-produced.
2. English regional (chiefly northern). Of coal: consisting of relatively large lumps; (also) designating a piece of coal in this form. Cf. round adj. 14c. Now rare.
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1868 J. C. Atkinson Gloss. Cleveland Dial. 414 They 're getten some gey guid coal at t' pits, noo: a'most a' roundy yans.
1885 J. Green Tales & Ballads Wearside (ed. 4) 330 Eff aw dinnot load big roundy coal, He can just fill the keel up wi' small.
a1922 T. Burt Autobiogr. (1924) vi. 82 Making our bed as best we could upon the rough lumps of hard ‘roundy’ coal.
1928 A. E. Pease Dict. Dial. N. Riding Yorks. (at cited word) ‘Roundy cooals’ or ‘roundy bits’ mean what would be termed ‘cobbles’ or ‘large cobbles’, sizes bigger than ‘nuts’, in the coal trade.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.a1586