gyrate [E19th] The Greek word guros meaning ‘a ring’ is the base of English gyrate. This passed into Latin as gyrare ‘to revolve’. Different as it may seem, to veer [L16th] is thought to be from the same source. It comes directly from French virer which is thought to be an alteration of gyrare. The original use of veer in English was nautical, of the wind, meaning ‘change gradually’; it came to mean ‘change course’ from the early 17th century.