avolo

Forms

āvolō (present infinitive āvolāre, perfect active āvolāvī, supine āvolātum); first conjugation^[1] The epitome of Festus records an archaic ⟨afvolant⟩ for ⟨āvolant⟩.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin ab- + volō² (“to fly”).^[4][1][3] That verb goes back to Proto-Italic *gʷela-je/o-; de Vaan, following Muller, finds a derivation from Proto-Indo-European *gʷelh₁- (“to raise the arm, throw”) conceivable, though Walde and Hofmann rejected it.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Accius, of a creature soaring away on feathered tail,^[4][3][6] and in Titinius, of a cock that has flown off.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense is “to fly away”: Titinius also has a thing that flies back like a catapult bolt, Columella and the jurist Gaius speak of birds that fly away and come back, and Suetonius of chickens that flew off while the auspices were being taken.^[4][8][2] Cicero uses it figuratively of the pleasures of the body, which fly away as soon as they come, of the soul leaving the body at death, and, ironically, of a heart that suddenly flew off somewhere.^[4][8]

Of people it means “to rush off, flee”: Cicero writes to Atticus that he will try to fly from where he is, Virgil has a young man fleeing on horseback, and Livy riders galloping off to Rome.^[4][8][7] Lewis & Short set it against advolō, “to fly towards”.^[8]

Timeline

• 170–c. 90 BC – Accius uses it of a creature flying away.^[4][6]
• end of 2nd/beginning of 1st century BC – Titinius uses it of a cock and a catapult bolt.^[4][6]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of flight through the air.^[4][8][6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of fleeing, of dying and of fleeting pleasure.^[4][8][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of a young man in flight.^[4][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy has riders galloping off to Rome.^[4][6]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of chickens flying off during the auspices.^[8][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fly away, fly off;^[4][8] (of a missile) to fly off;^[4] (figurative) to vanish quickly.^[4][2]
2. (of people) To rush off, flee, hasten away.^[4][8]
3. (of the soul) To depart at death.^[8][2]

Related words

• advolō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press