volubilitas Latin · revision 36363

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=81–43 BC, Cicero|origins=ine-pro *uel-u-}}

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''volūbilitās''' ''f'' (genitive volūbilitātis); third declension^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|volūbilis|-tās|t1=rolling, spinning]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary) De Vaan derives the adjective from [[m|la|volvō|t=to roll]], with the long ⟨ū⟩ usual in such derivatives; the verb goes back to [[itc-pro|*welu-e/o-]] and [[ine-pro|*uel-u-|t=to wind]].^(de Vaan 2008) Cognate with [[grc|εἰλύω|tr=eilúō|t=to wind round]] and [[ang|wealwian|t=to revolve]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Köbler dates it from Cicero,^(Köbler 2010) who in ''De natura deorum'' speaks of the ''mundi volubilitas'', the rotation of the universe.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Its sense is the property of turning or rolling.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Ovid says that rotation itself holds the poised globe in place, and once perhaps uses it of the roundness of a head.^(OLD 2012) 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.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010) From the turning wheel it passed to the instability of fortune, in Cicero and Pliny the Elder.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ In rhetoric it meant a ready flow of words.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) Cicero speaks of fluency of the tongue and warns that a flow of words is empty without wide knowledge;^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010) 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.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)^(Conte 2010) British medieval writers used it of the turning of the planets, of wheels and of fortune's wheel, and of changeability.^(DMLBS) English took it as [[m|en|volubility]] in the 1580s, from French or directly from Latin.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of the rotation of the heavens and of fluent speech.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 43 BC–18 AD – Ovid uses it of the rotation that holds the globe in place.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 23/24–79 AD – Pliny the Elder uses it of the instability of fortune.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of a showman's patter.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1580s – English borrows it as [[m|en|volubility]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # [[m|en|rotation|alt=Rotation]], whirling motion.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # Roundness (doubtful).^(OLD 2012)^(Gaffiot 2016)

+ # The capacity to roll; rolling motion.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010)

+ # ''(figurative)'' Changeableness, [[m|en|instability]] (of fortune).^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+ # A ready flow of words, [[m|en|fluency]], volubility.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[volubilis]]

+ * [[volvo]]

+ * [[en|volubility]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}