devolo

Forms

dēvolō (present infinitive dēvolāre, perfect active dēvolāvī, supine dēvolātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin dē- + volō² (“to fly”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Italic *gʷela-je/o-; following Muller he connects it with Proto-Indo-European *gʷelh₁- (“to raise the arm, throw”), the root of Ancient Greek βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”), a shift of meaning he finds conceivable for birds, though Walde and Hofmann rejected it.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Plautus on,^[5][4] who writes devolant angues iubati deorsum in impluvium duo, “two crested snakes fly down into the impluvium”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Its main sense is flying or swooping down, as when Virgil’s Iris flies down through the sky and stands above someone’s head.^[2][7] Livy uses it of people rushing down from the tribunal to help a lictor.^[2] It also meant flying to a place, as Horace’s thrush flies off to where wealth shines, and flying away: the Rhetorica ad Herennium says that when fortune slips away, they fly off.^[2] Medieval writers used it of feathers flying off a bird of prey and of a spark flying from a beloved.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of snakes flying down.^[2][6]
• 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of Iris flying down from the sky.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of a thrush flying off.^[2][6]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy uses it of rushing down from the tribunal.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fly or swoop down.^[2][7]
2. To drop down.^[2]
3. To hurry or rush down.^[2][9]
4. To fly (to a place).^[2]
5. To fly away.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ Bianchi, Rossella; Lelli, Olga (2014), VOLI: Vocabolario di latino, Florence: Le Monnier
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
9. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.