volatility

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin volatilitas,^[2] from Latin volātilis (“flying, winged; fleeting”),^[2][3][4] the source of volatile, from volō (“to fly”).^[3][5] Etymonline and the Shorter Oxford treat it as formed on the adjective with the suffix -ity.^[3][4] The OED compares French volatilité (1641), Italian volatilità and Spanish volatilidad.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Readiness to vaporize or evaporate: 1626, in Francis Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word began in natural philosophy, for the readiness of a substance to "fly away" as vapour.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the quality of flying away by evaporation; not fixity", quoting Bacon.^[6][2] From 1655, in Thomas Fuller's Church-History of Britain, it was used of people for levity or flightiness,^[2][3] and the Shorter Oxford notes that it now means especially changeableness of mood or behaviour.^[4] The literal sense "capacity for flight" is rare: the OED records it from 1722,^[2] Etymonline from 1822.^[3] In finance it is the tendency of prices to change suddenly and sharply,^[7] and Etymonline dates volatile of stocks and markets to 1931.^[3] In computing, from 1969, it is the property of a memory that loses its data when the power is cut off.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1626 – readiness to evaporate, in Bacon's Sylva Sylvarum.^[2][3]
• 1655 – levity, flightiness, lack of seriousness.^[2][3]
• 1722 – capacity for flight (rare).^[2]
• 1755 – Johnson: "the quality of flying away by evaporation".^[6]
• 1797 – capacity for rapid movement (rare).^[2]
• 1969 – computing, loss of stored data when the power fails.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The tendency to change suddenly and unpredictably: the volatility of the political situation.^[4][8]
2. (finance) The tendency of a price or market to rise and fall sharply; also a measure of this.^[7][2]
3. (chemistry) The readiness of a liquid or solid to evaporate.^[2][4][8]
4. (computing) The property of a memory that does not keep its data without power.^[2][4]
5. Changeableness of mood; levity or flightiness.^[2][4]
6. (rare) The capacity for flight or for rapid movement.^[2][4]

Word family

• nonvolatility

Related words

• volatile
• volant
• volley
• volatilize

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
7. ^ a b Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
8. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster