Volo (2)

#etymology #japanese Published: 2021-12-01

The Latin word “volō” has two different meanings, “I wish” and “I fly” (although they have different conjugations). I wrote about the former in this post, so let me share some words related to the second meaning.

English words that come from volō (I fly) include “volatile”, “volant”, and “volley”.

volatile

As you probably know, volatile means “easily evaporated at normal temperatures” or “easily changing from one interest or mood to another”. This meaning can be understood as “(a substance) flying away into the air”.

volant

Volant¹ usually means “flying” or “able to fly” (e.g. “volant animals”, “volant adaptation”).

volley

The English word “volley” has two main meanings:

• a simultaneous discharge of a number of firearms or artillery (cf. volley fire)
• a return stroke or hit at a ball before it has touched the ground (often in tennis or soccer)

Both of these are related to things that “fly straight without touching the ground”.

Now the word “volleyball” totally makes sense, as volleyball players need to return a “volley”.

By the way, Japanese corresponding katakana for volley is usually ボレー, but the “volley” part of volleyball is written as バレー.

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