volta

Forms

volta f (plural volte)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *volta, a shortened form of *volvita, from *volvitus, a popular past participle of Latin volvō (“to roll, turn”) in place of classical volūtus.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} DELI accepts that it may be a deverbal noun of voltare, but finds a Vulgar Latin noun the easier explanation, quoting Migliorini's view that the abstract sense comes from the oxen turning at the end of the furrow.^[6] GDLI and DEI derive the sense “turn” from the verb.^[7][8] The same Latin form is French voûte (“vault”), Occitan volta, Catalan volta, Spanish vuelta (“turn”) and Portuguese volta;^[2][5] the full form without syncope gave Spanish bóveda (“vault”).^[8][5]

Nocentini notes that Italian developed the widest range of metaphorical senses: French stops at the concrete “vault”, and Spanish has “turn, curve, return” but not “time, occasion”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to 1219 in the sense “a turn, the moment when it falls to someone to act”.^[9][10] Nocentini dates the sense “direction towards a goal” to the 13th century and the turning movement and the arched structure to the 14th.^[2] DELI's first record is in Dante's Commedia, 1300–1313, in the sense “a turning, turning round”, as in “ma con dar volta suo dolore scherma” (but by turning over she fends off her pain, Purgatorio 6).^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The sense “occasion, time when something happens” is in Dante's Convivio (1304–1308), and with a numeral (tre volte, three times) the word counted repetitions before 1321.^[6] Per volta with a distributive meaning is in Giordano da Pisa before 1311, and alla volta di “in the direction of” in a Pisan merchant's letter of 1458.^[6] The architectural sense “vault” is in Giovanni Villani before 1348;^[6][5] Old Genoese and Venetian volta meant a vaulted storeroom or shop, and Patecchio already uses it for a cellar.^[6][5] Many fixed phrases followed: c'era una volta (once upon a time), una volta per tutte and dare di volta il cervello (to go mad).^[6]

In horsemanship volta was a circling movement (Grisone, 1590), and it was also the name of a lively dance.^[8][10] Both passed to French as volte and on to German Volte, and English took the dance as lavolta about 1590.^[10] Greek βόλτα (vólta, “a stroll”) and Turkish olta are among the word's other borrowings.^[1]

Timeline

• 1219 – Volta “turn” is first recorded.^[9][10]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses volta for a turning round.^[6]
• 1304–1308 – Volta “occasion” in Dante's Convivio.^[6]
• Before 1348 – Giovanni Villani uses volta “vault”.^[6]
• 1458 – Alla volta di “towards” in a Pisan letter.^[6]
• 1590 – Volta as a movement in horsemanship, in Grisone.^[8]
• c. 1590 – English lavolta “the volta dance” is recorded.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. time, occasion, an instance of something happening: l'ultima volta che l'ho visto; with numbers: due volte al giorno.^[9][3][4]
2. turn, the moment when it falls to someone to act: adesso tocca a te, è la tua volta.^[9][3][4]
3. alla volta di: in the direction of, bound for: la nave salpò alla volta di Genova.^[3][11][12]
4. (literary) The act of turning, a turn or bend.^[9][13][4]
5. (architecture) A vault, a curved masonry roof; also any surface shaped like one: la volta della grotta, la volta celeste.^[9][3][4]
6. (anatomy) An arched structure: volta cranica, volta del palato.^[9][3]
7. (metrics) One of the parts of the stanza of a canzone or a ballata, (printing) the side of the sheet printed second.^[9][4]
8. (sport) A figure in figure skating; a dance of the 16th and 17th centuries.^[9][4]

Word family

• giravolta
• talvolta
• stavolta
• volteggiare
• univoltino

Related words

• voltare
• volgere
• volto
• Latin volvō
• Spanish vuelta
• French voûte

Usage notes

Common phrases are una volta (once; formerly), a volte and alle volte (sometimes), qualche volta, di volta in volta (case by case), una buona volta (once and for all) and chiave di volta (keystone), a calque of French clef de voûte.^[9][3][8]

A separate volta is an old name of the volt, the unit of electromotive force, named after Alessandro Volta (1745–1827) and recorded by Panzini in 1905.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
5. ^ a b c d e Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
7. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca
8. ^ a b c d e f Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4086
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
10. ^ a b c d e Stammerjohann, Harro, et al. (2008), Dizionario di italianismi in francese, inglese, tedesco, Firenze: Accademia della Crusca; online at difit.italianisticaonline.it
11. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana
12. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
13. ^ Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli