Etymologically
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volutatio

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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]

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