volare

Forms

volare (first-person singular present vólo, first-person singular past historic volài, past participle volàto, auxiliary (usually) avére or (when accompanied by a location to or from, or in extended or figurative senses) èssere)^[1] Old and dialect forms include voliare and votare.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin volō (“to fly”), which Latin also used for moving swiftly, as when Cicero writes that letters “flew” to Pompey at Capua.^[3][4][1] The verb survives in all of the Romance languages except Romanian: French voler, Occitan volar, Catalan volar, Spanish volar, Portuguese voar and Sardinian bolare.^[5][4][6] The DÉRom places it in the oldest layer of Proto-Romance, and notes that it is missing in Dalmatian, Friulian, Ladin and Romansh as well.^[7] The French verb also came to mean “to steal”, from falconry, where the falcon was flown at a bird.^[4][6]

The deeper origin is uncertain.^[3] Wiktionary gives Proto-Italic *gʷelāō as the Proto-Italic form.^[1] Nocentini and Devoto compare Sanskrit गरुत् (garút, “wing”) and the name of Garuda, king of the birds, which point to a root ⟨*gʷel-⟩ of the language of augurs.^[4][8] De Vaan mentions a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelh₁- (“to raise the arm, throw”), the root of Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”), proposed by Muller and rejected by Walde and Hofmann, and finds the shift from raising the arm to flying conceivable for birds.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dante's Vita nuova (1293–1294), with the sense “to stay up and move through the air by means of wings”, said of birds and other winged animals.^[3][4][10]

Semantic evolution

Dante also used the verb for fantastic winged beings and for rising to great heights, and Petrarch in 1374 for time that runs away.^[3] Luigi Pulci, before 1484, used it for running at great speed and for objects hurled with force.^[3] Volare in cielo, to die, is recorded in Saviozzo in 1420.^[3]

With balloons and aircraft the verb came to mean travelling by air (Tommaseo–Bellini, 1879) and, in Marinetti and Azari's Primo dizionario aereo italiano of 1929, the flight of the aircraft itself.^[3] Volare alto, to aim high, runs parallel to French voler haut.^[3] The family grew large: volante “steering wheel” (1609), volantino “leaflet” (1923), and volo spaziale after English space flight.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1293–1294 – Dante uses volare for the flight of birds.^[3][10]
• 1374 – Petrarch uses it for time that passes quickly.^[3]
• 1420 – Volare in cielo “to die” appears in Saviozzo.^[3]
• Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses it for moving at great speed.^[3]
• 1609 – Volante is recorded for a hand wheel.^[3]
• 1879 – The Tommaseo–Bellini dictionary records the sense “to travel by air”.^[3]
• 1923 – Volantino “leaflet” is recorded.^[3][4]
• 1929 – Marinetti and Azari use volare for aircraft.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of birds and other winged animals, to fly: Le rondini volavano basse sul campo.^[10][11][12]
2. Of angels, gods and fantastic creatures, to move through the air.^[10][11]
3. Of aircraft and spacecraft, to fly through the air or through space.^[10][11][12]
4. To travel by plane, or to work as a pilot or member of a flight crew: Mio fratello ha paura di volare.^[10][11]
5. Of light objects, to float through the air before falling: Le foglie volavano nel vento.^[10][12]
6. To be thrown or flung through the air, and figuratively of blows and insults exchanged.^[10][12]
7. (figurative) To go very fast, to rush: Appena saputo, è volato a casa.^[10][12][13]
8. (figurative) Of time, to pass quickly.^[3][10]

Word family

• volo
• volata
• volante
• volantino
• volatile
• volatore
• volatica
• svolazzare
• sorvolare
• trasvolare
• convolare
• volitare

Related words

• idrovolante
• voliera
• French voler

Usage notes

Volare takes avere when the action itself is meant and essere with a place to or from and in figurative senses.^[11][14][15] Set phrases include volere o volare (“like it or not”), non si sente volare una mosca (“you could hear a pin drop”) and volare in cielo (“to die”).^[10][11][14] A separate anatomical adjective volare “of the palm or sole”, from Latin vola, is recorded from 1961.^[10][11][12] An 18th-century volare “to steal”, adapted from French voler, appears in Scipione Maffei.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 978
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
4. ^ a b c d e f g Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
5. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4081
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
11. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
13. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
14. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
15. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
16. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 980