Circulating

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The movement or dissemination of items or information throughout a community or network occurs continuously and can create a loop or connection between elements
2. Refers to something that flows or moves steadily within a closed system ; denotes the process of something being transmitted or shared among a group of people or places
3. Describes a state where an object or substance is in constant motion within a defined path ; involves the distribution or exchange of items, information, or ideas among individuals or communities

Etymology: The most striking thread here is the alchemist's vessel. Middle English "circulat" once described a substance changed by continuous distillation in a closed vessel, the liquid driven off by heat, condensed, and returned to the pot again and again. That literal loop is the ancestor of the modern sense of something flowing steadily within a closed system. The root is the Latin "circulus", "a circle", the diminutive of "circus". Late Latin "circulare", "to make circular, encircle", formed the past participle "circulatus", which passed into English. Its ancestor in the verb-forming pattern is the suffix "-ate", which turns a noun or adjective into a verb meaning "to make into" or "to treat with". So "circulate" literally means "to make circular," a fitting origin for a word about things that keep coming back around. The later sense of sharing among people and places grew naturally from the same image: news, money, and books move around a group and return to where they began. The "circulating" form simply marks that motion in progress.

Synonyms: distributing, flowing