Meaning

verb become widely known and passed on

verb cause to become widely known

verb cause be distributed

originBorrowed from Late Latin circulātus, perfect passive participle of Late Latin circulō (“to make circular, encircle”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), a later collateral form of circulor (“form a circle (of men) around oneself”), from circulus (“a circle”). See also Middle English circulat(e) (“(alchemy) changed by continuous distillation in a closed vessel”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0