"V" Word Origins

voe

Origin

Shetland and Orkney dialect, from Norn, from Old Norse vágr (“inlet, bay”). Cognate with Swedish and Norwegian våg, and Faroese vágur. Doublet of way.

Vogel

Origin

(crater): Named after German astrophysicist Hermann Carl Vogel (1841–1907).

Vogler

German

Borrowed from German Vogler.

vogue

French

From French vogue, "success" or "trend," originally meaning "the rowing or sailing of a boat" — the sense shifted from something moving forward smoothly to something popular and on the rise.

voice

Latin

From Old French voiz, from Latin vox ("voice"), from a very old root meaning "to speak" — the same root gives us "vocal" and "advocate."

voicemail

Origin

A blend of voice and mail, originally a trademarked product name that became a generic term.

void

Latin

From Old French voide, "empty," ultimately from Latin vacuus ("empty") — related to "vacuum" and "vacant."

Voight

German

Variant of Vogt, from German. Ultimately from Latin advocātus. Doublet of advocate.

voilà

French

From French voilà, literally "see there", from vois (see) plus là (there).

voile

Origin

Borrowed from French voile (“veil”). Doublet of veil and velum.

voivodeship

Origin

From voivode (“local ruler or official in parts of central and eastern Europe; administrative chief in Poland”) + -ship (suffix forming nouns indicating properties or states of being). Voivode is variously derived from a number of Slavic languages including Bulgarian войвода (vojvoda), Czech vojevoda, Polish wojewoda, Russian воево́да (vojevóda), and Serbo-Croatian vojvoda, војвода, all from Proto-Slavic *vojevoda (“army leader; duke; warlord”), from *voji (“army”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *weyh₁- (“to chase, pursue; to persecute; to suppress”)) + *-e- + *vodìti (“to conduct; to lead”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wedʰ- (“to lead”)). Sense 3 is a semantic loan from Polish województwo.

volatile

Latin

From Latin volatilis, "flying," from volare, "to fly" — the idea of something that evaporates or changes as quickly as if it took flight.

volatility

Latin

From Latin volatilis "flying, fleeting", from volare "to fly".

volcanian

Origin

Directly from Latin Volcāniānus or from Latin Volcānius + -an within English, from Volcānus + -iānus (“-ian”) or -ius (“-y: forming adjectives”). Equivalent to Volcan + -ian. Doublet of Vulcanian.

volcanic

French

From French volcanique, ultimately from volcan, "volcano."

volcano

Italian

From Italian vulcano, named after Vulcano, a volcanic island in the Mediterranean itself named for Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.

Voldemort

Origin

From Lord Voldemort, the villain of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, whose name characters fearfully avoid saying aloud, preferring euphemisms like "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

vole

Old Norse

From the Orkney dialect phrase "vole mouse," meaning "field mouse," from Old Norse vollr, "field."

Volga

Russian

Borrowed from Russian Во́лга (Vólga).

volitient

Origin

See volition.

volition

Medieval Latin

From Medieval Latin volitio, "will," from Latin volo, "I wish" — related to "voluntary" and "volunteer."

Volkov

Russian

Borrowed from Russian Волков (Volkov).

Volkswagen

German · 1930

From German Volkswagen, literally "people's car" — the company was founded in the 1930s with the goal of producing an affordable car for ordinary German families.

volley

Latin

From Middle French volée, "flight," ultimately from Latin volare, "to fly."

volleyball

Origin · 1890

Coined in the 1890s in Massachusetts from volley + ball, after an observer noticed the "volleying" back-and-forth nature of the newly invented game (originally called Mintonette).

volt

Italian

Named after the Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, inventor of the first electrical battery.

volta

Italian

From Italian volta, "a turn," a doublet of the English word "volte."

voltage

Origin

From volt + the noun-forming suffix -age, ultimately honoring Alessandro Volta, inventor of the battery.

Voltaire

French

Borrowed from French Voltaire. The surname is mostly found in Haiti.

Voltron

Origin · 1980

From Voltron, a giant robot formed by combining five smaller robots in the 1980s animated series Voltron: Defender of the Universe.

voluble

Origin

From Middle French volubile, from Latin volūbilis (“rolling”), from volvō (“roll”).

volume

Latin

From Latin volumen, "a roll" or "scroll," from volvere, "to roll" — ancient books were literally rolled scrolls before the codex format existed.

volumetric

Origin

Blend of volume + -metric.

voluminous

Latin

From late Latin voluminosus, from volumen 'a roll or scroll'.

voluntarily

Origin

From voluntary + the adverb-forming suffix -ly.

voluntary

Latin

From Latin voluntarius, "willing," from voluntas, "will" or "wish."

volunteer

Latin

From French voluntaire, from Latin voluntarius, "willing" — originally used specifically for soldiers who chose to serve rather than being conscripted.

volunteer work

French

From volunteer, via French volontaire, from Latin voluntarius 'of one's free will'.

voluptuary

Origin

From French voluptuaire, or directly from its etymon Late Latin voluptuārius, from Latin voluptārius (“pleasure-seeker; agreeable, delightful, pleasant; sensual”), from voluptās (“delight, pleasure, satisfaction”) + -ārius (suffix forming adjectives from nouns). Voluptās is derived from volup (“with pleasure; agreeably, pleasantly, satisfactorily”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose; to want”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being).

voluptuous

Latin

From Latin voluptuosus, "delightful," from voluptas, "pleasure."

volute

Origin

From French volute, from Italian voluta, from Latin volūta, from the feminine of volūtus, perfect passive participle of volvō. Doublet of vault.

Volvo

Latin

From Latin volvo, "I roll," originally referencing ball bearings, the company's first product.

vomit

Latin

From Latin vomitare, "to vomit repeatedly," from vomere, "to be sick."

vonce

Origin

Borrowed from Yiddish וואַנץ (vants, “bedbug”), by analogy to the English slang term roach. Attested since the 1950s.

voodoo

French

Traced back through Haitian Creole and French to a West African language (likely Fon or Ewe), where a related word meant "spirit" or "deity."

Voorhees

Dutch

Anglicization of Dutch (van) voor Hees (“(from) before Hees”).

voracious

Latin

From Latin vorax, built from voro, "to devour."

vortex

Latin

Borrowed directly from Latin vortex, "whirl" — a doublet of the word vertex.