voluble

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English[edit]

WOTD – 20 May 2009

Etymology[edit]

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

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

voluble (comparative more voluble, superlative most voluble)

  1. (of a person or a manner of speaking) Fluent or having a ready flow of speech.
    Synonyms: garrulous, loquacious, tonguey; see also Thesaurus:talkative
    Antonym: halting
    • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 128, column 2:
      A moſt acute Iuuvenal, voluble and free of grace, […]
    • 1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “The Cleopatra”, in Villette. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 63:
      What fun shone in his eyes as he recalled some of her fine speeches, and repeated them, imitating her voluble delivery!
    • 1904, Jack London, chapter XXVI, in The Sea-Wolf (Macmillan’s Standard Library), New York, N.Y.: Grosset & Dunlap, →OCLC, page 246:
      But Wolf Larsen seemed voluble, prone to speech as I had never seen him before. It was as though he were bursting with pent energy which must find an outlet somehow.
    • 2021 June 3, Gillian Tett, “The empty office: what we lose when we work from home”, in The Guardian‎[1]:
      In the summer of 2020, Daniel Beunza, a voluble Spanish social scientist who taught at Cass business school in London, organised a stream of video calls with a dozen senior bankers in the US and Europe.
  2. Of thoughts, feelings, or something that is expressed: expressed readily or at length and in a fluent manner.
    • 1649, J[ohn] Milton, “Vpon the Insolency of the Tumults”, in ΕΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΆΣΤΗΣ [Eikonoklástēs] […], London: […] Matthew Simmons, […], →OCLC, page 32:
      Thus farr the occaſion of this diſcours againſt Tumults; now to the diſcours itſelf, voluble anough, and full of ſentence, but that, for the moſt part, either ſpecious rather then ſolid, or to his cauſe nothing pertinent.
    • 1886, William Dean Howells, chapter 6, in The Minister's Charge:
      [H]e heard the voice of the drunken woman, now sober, poured out in voluble remorse, and in voluble promise of amendment for the future, to every one who passed, if they would let her off easy.
    • 1910, Saki [pseudonym; Hector Hugh Munro], “The Reticence of Lady Anne”, in Reginald in Russia and Other Sketches, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 9:
      As a rule Lady Anne's displeasure became articulate and markedly voluble after four minutes of introductory muteness.
    • 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 9: Scylla and Charybdis]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 192:
      In the daylit corridor he talked with voluble pains of zeal, in duty bound, most fair, most kind, most honest broadbrim.
  3. Easily rolling or turning; having a fluid, undulating motion.
    Synonym: steady
    • 1935, Leonard Barnes, Zulu Paraclete: A Sentimental Record, Peter Davies, page 22:
      Seen from the west, their sky-line gallops away north and south like a sea-serpent in voluble motion.
  4. (botany) Twisting and turning like a vine.

Related terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Spanish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin volūbilis.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /boˈluble/ [boˈlu.β̞le]
  • Rhymes: -uble
  • Syllabification: vo‧lu‧ble

Adjective[edit]

voluble m or f (masculine and feminine plural volubles)

  1. voluble
  2. fickle
    Synonym: veleidoso

Further reading[edit]

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