volubilitas

Forms

volūbilitās f (genitive volūbilitātis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin volūbilis (“rolling, spinning”) + -tās.^[2][1] De Vaan derives the adjective from volvō (“to roll”), with the long ⟨ū⟩ usual in such derivatives; the verb goes back to Proto-Italic *welu-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *uel-u- (“to wind”).^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek εἰλύω (eilúō, “to wind round”) and Old English wealwian (“to revolve”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates it from Cicero,^[4] who in De natura deorum speaks of the mundi volubilitas, the rotation of the universe.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

Its sense is the property of turning or rolling.^[2][6] Ovid says that rotation itself holds the poised globe in place, and once perhaps uses it of the roundness of a head.^[2] In De fato Cicero has the image of a cylinder: whoever pushed it gave it the start of its motion, but not its ability to roll.^[2][5] From the turning wheel it passed to the instability of fortune, in Cicero and Pliny the Elder.^[2][7]

In rhetoric it meant a ready flow of words.^[2][7] Cicero speaks of fluency of the tongue and warns that a flow of words is empty without wide knowledge;^[2][5] Quintilian contrasts the strength of real oratory with the patter of a showman, Pliny the Younger says many Greeks have fluency instead of a rich style, and Suetonius quotes Augustus on a flow of words empty of thought.^[2][6][5] British medieval writers used it of the turning of the planets, of wheels and of fortune's wheel, and of changeability.^[8] English took it as volubility in the 1580s, from French or directly from Latin.^[9]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the rotation of the heavens and of fluent speech.^[2][4]
• 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the rotation that holds the globe in place.^[2][4]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the instability of fortune.^[2][4]
• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a showman's patter.^[2][4]
• 1580s – English borrows it as volubility.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. Rotation, whirling motion.^[2][7]
2. Roundness (doubtful).^[2][10]
3. The capacity to roll; rolling motion.^[2][5]
4. (figurative) Changeableness, instability (of fortune).^[2][7]
5. A ready flow of words, fluency, volubility.^[2][7]

Related words

• volubilis
• volvo
• English volubility

References

1. ^ a b 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 r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c d e Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
6. ^ a b Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
7. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.