involo

Forms

involō (present infinitive involāre, perfect active involāvī, supine involātum); first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin in- (“in, into”) + volō² (“to fly”).^[2][1][3] De Vaan derives volō² from Proto-Italic *gʷela-je/o- and finds it conceivable that this goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷelh₁- (“to raise the arm, throw”), since raising the arm could have come to mean flying when said of birds, though Walde and Hofmann rejected the link.^[4]

The grammarian Nonius derived it either from the flight of birds or from vola (“hollow of the hand”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus is the first author: in the Amphitruo horsemen charge in with loud shouting.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its literal sense was to fly into or at a place: Varro has doves flying into a farmhouse, and Columella insects that fly at us and birds flying onto their nests.^[2][5][6] Far more often it meant to rush at or upon, to attack:^[2][7] Terence has a character who can hardly keep from flying at someone's hair, the Bellum Alexandrinum an attacker rushing at Longinus, and Tacitus a sudden assault on a camp.^[7][5][6] Tacitus also uses it of a desire that seizes the mind.^[2][6]

From this came the sense of swooping on something in order to take it: Cicero says that men had seized on the possession of wisdom and learning as if it lay vacant,^[2][6] and Catullus and Petronius use it of making off with a cloak and a ring.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus uses it of horsemen charging.^[2][8]
• 190–159 BC – Terence uses it of flying at someone's hair.^[7][5][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it of doves flying into a farmhouse.^[2][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of seizing on a possession.^[2][8]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of carrying off a cloak.^[6][8]
• 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of attacking a camp and of desire seizing the mind.^[2][5][8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To fly into or at.^[2][7]
2. To rush in or upon, attack;^[2][6] (of feelings) to seize.^[2][6]
3. To swoop on in order to take, seize on, carry off.^[2][6]

Related words

• volō²

Usage notes

The OLD also lists the variant induvolō.^[2]

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