peloton

Etymology

of the Boise to Idaho City stage of the Women’s Challenge race in June 1998.]] Borrowed from French peloton (“small ball (of thread, etc.), pellet; (cycling) group of riders formed during a cycling road race; (military) small group of soldiers, platoon”), from pelote (“small ball (of thread, etc.)”) (ultimately from Latin pila (“ball; ball game; globe, sphere”) (probably referring to a ball of hair), from pilus (“strand of hair”), from Proto-Indo-European *pil- (“strand of hair”)) + -on (augmentative suffix). Doublet of platoon.

noun

1. (cycle racing) A group of riders formed during a cycling road race; especially, the main group of riders; the pack.
   For the most part, though, the good stuff did not come in following a break of three riders, nor sitting 20 metres in front of the peloton watching its arrow head glide across the plains of south-west France. It was at the back of the peloton, in the engine room, where things really got interesting. It is a remarkable thing, the peloton. In the distance, or from the aerial shots showing it stretching and contracting, or splitting down the middle to allow it to flow smoothly around a roundabout, the 175 individual cyclists resemble a single unit, a fluid, malleable whole. 15 July 2006, “Tour de France 2006: Life is rarely dull among the bottle-carriers and peloton pushers”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2016-03-15
   The summit of the climb came 38km from the end of stage 14, which began in Limoux and ended in Foix in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and the incident occurred as the peloton emerged into the light and passed under the banner at the top, a quarter of an hour behind a five-man breakaway. 15 July 2012, Richard Williams, “Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-03-31
2. (military, chiefly historical) Synonym of platoon (“a small group of soldiers”) or synonym of section (cognate with the former; not invariably synonymous with it, depending on century of use)
   A regiment of cavalry consists of six squadrons, each squadron of four pelotons, each peloton of two companies, each company of two escouardes, and each escouarde of two men. 1840 November, R[ichard] W[illiam] H[oward] Howard Vyse, “Some Account of the Composition and Force of the Egyptian Army”, in The United Service Journal and Naval and Military Magazine, part III, number 144, London: Henry Colburn,[…], →OCLC, page 307
   In Bauske, on 2 July, the local commandant had twenty hostages publicly shot at the Memel bridge by a peloton supplied by the local headquarters, allegedly in "reprisal" for the German soldiers who had fallen in the battles for the town. 2000, Margers Vestermanis, “Local Headquarters Liepaja: Two Months of German Occupation in the Summer of 1941”, in Hannes Heer, Klaus Naumann, editors, War of Extermination: The German Military in World War II, 1941–1944 (Studies on War and Genocide; 3), New York, N.Y.: Berghahn Books, published 2009, page 232