Etymology

volatile

vol·a·tile
V4O1L1A1T1I1L1E1

Today it means: Evaporating or vaporizing readily under normal conditions. Full definition →

Middle French volatile ← Latin volātilis
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Latin · derived fromvolātilis“flying; swift; temporary; volatile”
  2. Middle French · derived fromvolatile
  3. English todayvolatile

From Middle French volatile, from Latin volātilis (“flying; swift; temporary; volatile”), from volō (“to fly”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.