1868, "restaurant where meat is roasted on a spit," from French rôtisserie "shop selling cooked food, restaurant," from present participle stem of rôtir "to roast," from Old French rostir (see roast, v.). As an in-home cooking apparatus, attested from 1953. Manufacturers (or their copy writers) back-formed a verb, rotiss (1958). Rotisserie league (1980), a form of fantasy baseball, is based on La Rotisserie, the Manhattan restaurant where it was conceived.