bicycle

English borrowed bicycle from French bicycle (later replaced in French by bicyclette), itself built from bi- ("two") plus cycle. The word was first attested in English in 1868, and in French in 1847.

The word entered English soon after its French coinage, keeping its literal two-wheeled meaning intact rather than shifting over time.

It shares its cycle half with the English word cycle itself, both tracing back through French and Late Latin cyclus to Ancient Greek kŭ́klos, meaning "circle" or "wheel".