volver

Forms

volver (first-person singular present volvo, first-person singular preterite volvi, past participle volvido)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin volvō (“to roll, to make go round”), written Old Galician-Portuguese volver in the oldest texts.^[2][3][4][1] Bluteau thought in 1712 that Portuguese had taken it from Old Spanish bolver; the modern dictionaries derive it straight from Latin, and the word is on record from the 13th century.^[5][2][3]

The same Latin word is Galician volver, Spanish volver, Italian volgere and Old French voudre.^[6][7][1] In Spanish it appears in the Cantar de mio Cid, and the spelling with b- was the usual one in the Middle Ages and the Golden Age.^[8]

De Vaan traces the Latin verb to a present Proto-Italic *welu-e/o- and to a PIE root meaning “to wind”, the source also of εἰλύω (eilúō, “to wind round”).^[9] Wiktionary gives the chain *wolwō, from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, wind, roll”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Lorenzo's chronology cites the Cantigas de Santa Maria, where a wind as galeas volver fez “made the galleys turn about”, and another cantiga where coins are counted and turned over.^[10] In the satirical cantigas volver a fight, a battle or a quarrel means to stir it up, and in a cantiga d'amigo of Pero Meogo the stags of the mountain stir up the water.^[10][11] The Marian cantigas also have volver-se “to roll about” and the sense “to set someone against another”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the senses “turn over the earth”, “turn about an axis”, “roll along” and “set in motion” to the 13th century, and “turn (the face, the eyes) in another direction” to the 14th.^[2] The verb then took on many senses of voltar and tornar: to return, to reply, to change into, and, of time, to pass.^[2][12] Bluteau quotes Camões on the rivers that “roll golden sands”, a line Morais and the Caldas Aulete quote too, and the proverb ao mao vento, volvelhe o capello.^[5][13]

In the army, direita, volver! and esquerda, volver! are the commands to turn right or left.^[12][14][15] In the Brazilian south, Schlee notes volver “to come back” and “to turn off in another direction”, shared with the Spanish of the River Plate.^[16]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, in the senses “turn over”, “turn round” and “set in motion”.^[2][3]
• 14th century – first record of “turn in another direction”.^[2]
• 1544 – a private letter writes bolver.^[17]
• 1712 – Bluteau equates volver with voltar and thinks it a loan from Castilian.^[5]
• 1734 – Feijó lists volver with revolver.^[18]
• 1789 – Morais quotes Camões's rivers that roll their sands.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To turn over, toss, roll: Volvia-se no colchão a noite inteira.^[2][12]
2. To turn (the head, the eyes, oneself) in another direction: Volveu a cara para a porta.^{[2][19][15][1]}
3. To turn over or stir repeatedly; to dig over: volver a terra do canteiro.^[2][19]
4. To make turn about an axis; to rotate.^[2][19]
5. To carry along rolling: A enxurrada volvia pedras e ramos.^[2][19][1]
6. To set in motion; to agitate, stir.^{[2][19][14][1]}
7. To answer back, retort; to return (an insult, a favour).^[2][19][15]
8. To change or be changed (into something), transform.^[2][19]
9. (reflexive or intransitive) Of time, to pass, elapse (decorrer): Volveram-se dez anos.^[2][14][12]
10. To return, go or come back; to make return: Nunca mais volveu à aldeia.^[2][14][20]
11. To take up again, start (doing something) again.^[2]
12. (military) A word of command to turn the ranks: direita, volver!^[14][15]

Noun

1. o volver: the act of turning or returning; the passing of time;^[14][15][21] num volver de olhos “in the blink of an eye”.^[14][15][21]

Related words

• devolver
• envolver
• revolver
• desenvolver
• volta
• voltar
• Latin volvō
• Spanish volver

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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 Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. volver
3. ^ a b c Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. volver
4. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. volver
5. ^ a b c Bluteau, Raphael (1712–1728), Vocabulario portuguez e latino, 8 vols. + 2 supplement vols., Coimbra / Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. volver
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. s.v. volver
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 839
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. volvō
10. ^ a b c Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. volver
11. ^ Lopes, Graça Videira; Ferreira, Manuel Pedro et al. (2011–), Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas [online database], Lisboa: Instituto de Estudos Medievais, FCSH/NOVA, https://cantigas.fcsh.unl.pt, p. s.v. volver
12. ^ a b c d Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. volver
13. ^ a b Silva, António de Morais (1789), Diccionario da lingua portugueza composto pelo padre D. Rafael Bluteau, reformado, e accrescentado, 2 vols., Lisboa: Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, p. 2, 535
14. ^ a b c d e f g Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. volver
15. ^ a b c d e f Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 9576
16. ^ Schlee, Aldyr Garcia (2019), Dicionário da Cultura Pampeana Sul-Rio-Grandense, 2 vols., Pelotas: Fructos do Paiz, p. 2, s.v. volver
17. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. volver
18. ^ Feijó, João de Morais Madureira (1734), Orthographia, ou Arte de escrever, e pronunciar com acerto a lingua portugueza, Lisboa (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. volver
19. ^ a b c d e f g Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. volver
20. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. volver
21. ^ a b Silva Bastos, José Timóteo da (1912), Diccionario etymologico, prosodico e orthographico da lingua portugueza, Lisboa: Parceria António Maria Pereira, p. s.v. volver