Other forms: circulated, circulating, circulates
To circulate is to pass around from one place or person to another. Circulate the draft, blood circulates, rumours circulated.
It implies a return to the start, which is why the word suits blood and money and less well a document that goes one way. Circulate the draft is office language for sending it to everybody who needs to see it before it is finished.
1verbcirculateTo pass around from one place or person to another.
“Blood circulates around the body, pumped by the heart.”
circulate is a passing round.
Latin circulare means to form a circle, from circulus, a little ring, from circus, a ring.
Latin
circulātus
English, today
circulate
Built from
Latin circulātus, perfect passive participle of Latin circulō (“to make circular, encircle”) (see -ate), a later collateral form of circulor (“form a circle (of men) around oneself”), from circulus (“a circle”). See also Middle English circulat (“(alchemy) changed by continuous distillation in a closed vessel”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA