Etymologically
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volubilis

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Pronunciation

  • Classical: [wɔˈɫuː.bɪ.lɪs][1]
  • Ecclesiastical: [voˈluː.bi.lis][1]

Forms

volūbilis (neuter volūbile); third-declension two-termination adjective[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin volvō (“to roll, turn”) + -bilis, with the lengthened ⟨-ū-⟩ usual in such derivatives.[2][1][3] De Vaan traces volvō to Proto-Italic *welu-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *uel-u- (“to wind”), cognate with Ancient Greek εἰλύω (eilúō, “to wind round”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it first in Pacuvius,[3] who pictures Fortune standing on a round, rolling stone.[2]

Semantic evolution

It means turning on its axis or spinning: Cicero speaks of the world itself as a round, burning, spinning god, and Virgil uses it of a top.[2][4] From rolling it came to mean changeable: Cicero writes how fickle and unstable fortune is.[2] Ovid uses it of a snake's coils,[2] and Horace of a river that flows on and will flow for ever.[2] Of speech it means fluent, readily flowing, as in the Rhetorica ad Herennium, and of speakers voluble.[2] Niermeyer records a medieval use of time, "flying".[5] English voluble came from it in the late 14th century, first meaning "revolving easily".[6]

Timeline

  • 220–130 BC – Pacuvius of Fortune's rolling stone.[2][3]
  • 81–43 BC – Cicero of the spinning world and of fickle fortune.[2][7]
  • 65–8 BC – Horace of a river flowing on.[2]
  • 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid of a snake's coils.[2]
  • late 14th century – voluble appears in English.[6]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Turning on its axis, spinning, revolving.[2][4][1]
  2. Rolling;[2][1] (figurative) changeable, unstable.[2][1]
  3. Forming coils, coiled.[2]
  4. (of streams) Rolling on, flowing;[2][1] (of speech) fluent, voluble.[2][1]
  5. (Medieval Latin, of time) Flying.[5]

Word family

  • volūbilitās
  • volūbiliter

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  4. ^ a b Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  5. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de