Etymologically
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involo

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [ˈɪn.wɔ.ɫoː][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [ˈiɱ.vo.lo][1]

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]

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