volutatio

Forms

volūtātiō f (genitive volūtātiōnis); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin volūtō (“to roll about”) + -tiō,^[2][1] and volūtō is a frequentative of volvō (“to roll”).^[3][4] De Vaan traces volvō to Proto-Italic *welu-e/o- and Proto-Indo-European *uel-u- (“to wind”), and compares Ancient Greek εἰλύω (eilúō, “to wind round”).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler records it first in Cicero,^[3] who in the speech against Piso describes someone pursuing something tōtīs volūtātiōnibus corporis, with all the rolling movements of the body.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It means a rolling about: of people,^[2][5] of pigs and other animals wallowing in mud (Pliny the Elder),^[2][5] of athletes in the dust (Tertullian),^[5] and of things, as of waves in Seneca or of a stone in Palladius.^[5][2] Seneca the Elder and Petronius use it in a sexual sense.^[2][5] From the Augustan age on it was used figuratively of a restless mind and of the instability of human affairs, both in Seneca.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of bodily movements.^[5][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of waves, of a restless mind and of instability.^[2][5][3]
• before 66 AD – Petronius uses it in a sexual sense.^[5][3]
• 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of pigs wallowing.^[2][5][3]
• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of athletes in the dust.^[5][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rolling about; of animals, wallowing.^[2][5]
2. A rolling movement of things.^[2]
3. Restlessness of the mind; turmoil or instability of affairs.^[2][5]

Related words

• volūtō
• volvō

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
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. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press