Excellent question.

Prior to the late eighteenth century, the word "revolution" essentially meant a change in government. It had the sort of cyclical connotation to it that we often associate with the other common use of revolution (i.e., the revolution of the earth around the Sun). Leaders rise, leaders fall, etc.

However, shortly after the beginning of the French Revolution, observers used the word revolution to describe it. Notably, observers also used the term "revolution" to describe the American Revolution, though largely in retrospect. The fact that people were thinking of the French Revolution in revolutionary terms during its beginning is actually the subject of a classic article by William Sewell called "Historical Events as Transformations of Structures" (dull title) in Theory and Society, 1996. So in a way, while you're right that the association of "revolution" with radical political changes came out of the French Revolution, it was not because of that revolution's rise and fall, but rather a new appropriation of the term.