volup

Latin

Etymology

Shortened from Old Latin *volupe, from Proto-Indo-European *wolp-i (“hope”, noun) with an anaptyctic vowel inserted between the l and p, from *welp- (“to hope”), whence Ancient Greek ἔλπω (élpō, “to cause to hope”).

The root *welp- has been alternately constructed by Hamp as *welh₁p-, and taken as a compound of *welh₁- (“to wish, want”) +‎ *h₁ep- (“to reach, get”), literally “desire reaching, attaining one's wish”. While this is formally possible and semantically reasonable, the rather strange shape of the formation, lack of other evidence for said formation, as well as *h₁ep- usually being reconstructed as *h₂ep-, casts this reconstruction in doubt.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈwɔ.ɫʊp]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈvɔː.lup]

Adverb

volup (not comparable)

1. pleasantly, agreeably, satisfactorily
2. with pleasure

Related terms

• Volupia
• voluptābilis
• voluptāriē
• voluptārius
• voluptās
• voluptātīvus
• voluptificus
• voluptuōsē
• voluptuōsus

Postposition

volup (+ dative)

1. a pleasure to, a pleasure of
   • c. 190 BCE – 185 BCE, Plautus, Amphitruo 993:

     gaudeo si quid patri volup est

     I'm happy if something is a pleasure to the father.

Usage notes

• almost always accompanied by the copula "est"

Further reading

• Pokorny, Julius (1959), Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch [Indo-European Etymological Dictionary] (in German), volume 3, Bern, München: Francke Verlag, page 1137
• “volup”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “volup”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “volup”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.