THE ETYMOLOGY NERD
  • Home
  • ALGOSPEAK
  • Infographics
    • Interactive Map
  • EVENTS
  • MORE
    • Shop
    • Media/publicity

RE-VOLT-ING

6/3/2017

0 Comments

 
Normally adjectives are formed from nouns, but here another noun formed from that adjective.  The word volt (of which voltmeter and voltage were derived) was coined in 1873 to describe the symbol for electric potential. This came from the 1813 term voltaic, a word named after Alessandro Volta, the inventor of the electric battery. But where did Volta's name come from? There's no concrete research on the topic because it's way too meta, but a quick search of the word volta in all Indo-European languages (in ours too; a volta has something to do with sonnets) yielded the same results all around: every one of them originally meant "to turn" or "return" or had something to do with turning, and all of them come from the Latin root volvere, or "to turn". If this is correct, it would come from the Proto-Indo-European word wel, meaning "revolve", and, yes, would be connected to the word revolting, revolve, and anything else you can think of with a -vol- in it. I wouldn't be surprised if this was his last name; such occurrences are not uncommon. That would also make him related to the Volta river in Africa! Who knows though; it may just be wishful thinking.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    AUTHOR

    Picture
    Hello! I'm Adam Aleksic. You're looking at a super outdated page

    Archives

    December 2023
    May 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    TAGS

    All
    Interview
    Satire

Picture
CONTACT: [email protected]
SUBSTACK • TIKTOK • INSTAGRAM • YOUTUBE
I do not have a facebook account that's an impostor
  • Home
  • ALGOSPEAK
  • Infographics
    • Interactive Map
  • EVENTS
  • MORE
    • Shop
    • Media/publicity