volcano

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian vulcano (“burning mountain”) (also volcano),^[2][3][4][5] ultimately from Latin Volcānus (also Vulcānus), Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking,^[2][3][5] whose name was also used for fire, flames and a volcano.^[2][4] The Romans applied it to Mount Etna, which they believed was Vulcan's forge.^[2][4][6] The OED notes that Italian vulcano is first found in 1555 in translations of Spanish accounts of the Americas, and that its use as a common noun followed volcán;^[3] the American Heritage Dictionary takes the Italian word from that Spanish one or from volcão.^[7] Earlier English forms were vulcane (late 14th century) and volcan (1570s), from volcan and Spanish.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

A mountain or hill with a crater or vent through which lava, rock and gases are or have been thrown out: 1613, in Samuel Purchas's Pilgrimage, spelled vulcano;^[3][4][8] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[2] The spelling volcano is recorded from 1690.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories notes that the Romans placed Vulcan's forge under Etna, while the Greeks set Hephaistos's on the volcanic island of Lemnos.^[9] Johnson (1755) defined the word simply as "a burning mountain".^[10] Figurative use for a person or thing liable to burst out violently is recorded from 1690, and for a suppressed violent passion from 1697.^[3] The word was also applied to a violent eruption of fire or smoke (1699) and to things that throw out fire like a volcano, such as a cone-shaped firework (1785).^[3] The rare verb, to erupt or to utter explosively, dates from 1867.^[3]

Timeline

• late 14th century – vulcane, from French.^[2]
• 1570s – volcan.^[2][4]
• 1613 – vulcano, a volcano.^[3][4]
• 1690 – the spelling volcano; figurative use.^[4][3]
• 1697 – a suppressed passion.^[3]
• 1785 – a firework of conical shape.^[3]
• 1867 – verb, to erupt or utter violently.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. An opening in the crust of the earth, or of another planet or moon, through which molten lava, rock fragments, ash and gases are thrown out.
2. A mountain or hill built up around such an opening from the material thrown out, often with a crater at its top: The village lies at the foot of a dormant volcano.
3. Something or someone liable to burst into sudden violence, or a strong feeling held in check: a volcano of resentment.

Word family

• volcanogenic
• volcanic
• volcanism
• volcanology

Related words

• Vulcan
• vulcanize
• vulcanology

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
5. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.