13th cent. Old Spanish rueda. From Latin rota 'id.'
From Proto-Italic *rot-ā- 'id. From Proto-Indo-European *Hrot-o/h2- "wheel," but originally "revolving." From a root *Hret- "to roll."
Part of names in toponyms in Palencia, Guadalajara, Zaragoza, and Valladolid (e.g., Rueda de Medina). Also the origin of Ruedas, a town in Soria, and Ruedes, a town in Oviedo.
Asturian rueda, Portuguese roda, Galician roda, Catalan roda, French roue, Italian ruota, Aromanian aroatã, Romanian roată, Sardinian roda
Gaulish Roto-magus "wheel market," Old Irish roth "wheel," reithid "to flow," Old Welsh redec 'id.,' Old Breton redec 'id.,' Middle Cornish resek 'id.'
Old High German rad "wheel," Old Dutch rath 'id.,' Old Frisian reth 'id.'
Lithuanian rãtas "wheel," "circle," Latvian rats 'id.'
Sanskrit rátha- "chariot," Young Avestan raθa- 'id.'
"From the reconstructible words it is clear the Proto-Indo-European community were familiar with wheeled vehicles and had the necessary terminology for wheels, axles, shafts, and yokes. It may be significant that the words we can reconstruct for this semantic field are both semantically and morphologically transparent, e.g. *kwekwlo- 'wheel' (< *'turner, roller') or *róth2os 'wheel' (< *'runner'). That may suggest that, while well established in late Proto-Indo-European, this terminology (and the objects they represent?) was not particularly ancient in the language." ~ Mallory & Adams, The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (2006)