"debauchee," 1800, from French roué "dissipated man, rake," originally past participle of Old French rouer "to break on the wheel" (15c.), from Latin rotare "roll" (see rotary). Said to have been first applied in French c. 1720 to dissolute friends of the Duke of Orleans (regent of France 1715-23), to suggest the punishment they deserved; but probably rather from a secondary, figurative sense in French of "jaded, worn out," from the notion of "broken, run-over, beat down."
