>>>Rotonda is, AFAIK, the Italian for the original building. The name has become a sort of generic name for any similar building, including the one Jefferson built in Charlottesville - which is also spelled with an U.
>
>From the latin rotundus = round.
>
>Rotunda can refer to a round building, usually with a dome, or to a round room. The church I attended as a child had a large, round room (with no dome) that was called the rotunda.
>
Hmmm. You might have known from my exchanges with Dragan I'm a bit of a language enthusiast, and the chances of my not knowing this were slim :-)

Back in the 70's, at the height of "The Troubles" in N. Ireland, I was at art college in Birmingham (England). My bank was in a multi-storey cyllindrical building called "The Rotunda". That building was bomb-attacked, along with a pub that I frequented at the weekend. I'll never forget what a rotunda is.

Luckily, I was away at sea with the Merchant Marine at the time. I felt as if the bombs had been meant for me!

>Rotund is an interesting variation, usually referring to someone's shape, and is a "nice" substitution for "fat," as in:
>
>The rotund gentleman's belly indicated that he had eaten too much jelly.

You think we've never read any Dickens? :-)

BTW, by "jelly" do you mean that which wobbles and comes from a mould, or a fruit preserve you spread on bread. I think what to us is jelly, to you is jello, and what to you is jelly to us is jam. :-)

As, I think, Oscar Wilde said: "Two countries separated by a common language"