volute

English

WOTD – 17 October 2015

Volutes on neoclassical Ionic capitals of a modern building

Volute of the shell of a living specimen of Voluta ebraea

Diagrammatic section of the volute of a centrifugal pump

Volute typical of a stringed musical instrument, on the scroll of a double bass

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vəˈluːt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -uːt

Noun

volute (plural volutes)

1. (architecture) The characteristic spiral curve on an Ionic capital, widely copied in other styles and in neoclassical architecture.
   • 1856, Edward Shaw, The Modern Architect, Or, Every Carpenter His Own Master:

     This example is much richer, yet no less elegant, than the other; the volute, instead of a single spiral, is formed by three; the sculptured echinus beneath is surmounted by a guilloched moulding, and separated from the shaft by a neck […]

2. (zoology) The spirals or whorls on a gastropod's shell.
3. (zoology) Any marine gastropod of the family Volutidae.
   • 2002, Don Philpott, Florida: Gulf Coast‎^[1], page 16:

     Common shells include frog-shells, distorsios, volutes, tulips, murex, cones, olives, marginellas, cowries, augers and the Florida horse conch, the state's official shell, which can grow up to 24in (6 1 cm) long.

4. (engineering) The casing in a centrifugal pump, whose shape is somewhat similar to architectural volutes.
5. (art) A spiral or scroll form.
6. (music) A scroll-shaped carving at the tuning head of a stringed musical instrument, similar to architectural volutes.

Derived terms

• elephant's snout volute
• music volute
• volutite
• volutoid

 

Translations

spiral on Ionic capital

• Armenian: գալարազարդ (hy) (galarazard), վոլյուտա (hy) (volyuta)
• Basque: boluta
• Belarusian: валю́та f (valjúta)
• Bulgarian: волута f (voluta)
• Catalan: voluta (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 渦形裝飾／涡形装饰 (wōxíng zhuāngshì)

• Czech: závitnice f, voluta f
• Danish: volut c
• Dutch: voluut (nl) f
• Esperanto: voluto
• Estonian: voluut
• Finnish: voluutta (fi)
• French: volute (fr) f
• Galician: voluta (gl) f
• Georgian: ვოლუტი (voluṭi)
• German: Volute (de) f
• Greek: κοχλίας (el) m (kochlías)
• Hebrew: וולוטה f (volúta)
• Hungarian: voluta (hu)
• Ido: voluto (io)
• Italian: voluta (it) f
• Japanese: 渦巻き飾り (うずまきかざり, uzumaki-kazari)
• Latvian: volūta f
• Lithuanian: voliuta f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: volutt m

  Nynorsk: volutt m

• Polish: woluta (pl) f
• Portuguese: voluta f
• Romanian: volută (ro) f
• Russian: волю́та (ru) f (voljúta)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: волута f

  Roman: voluta (sh) f

• Slovak: volúta f
• Slovene: voluta (sl) f
• Spanish: voluta (es) f
• Swedish: volut (sv) c
• Turkish: volüt
• Ukrainian: волю́та f (voljúta)

spirl on a gastropod's shell

• Bulgarian: витка f (vitka)
• Czech: závit (cs) m

a type of shellfish

• Maori: pūpū rore

casing in a centrifugal pump

• Czech: spirální skříň f

scroll shaped carving at the tuning head of stringed musical instruments

• Czech: šnek (cs) m
• Swedish: snäcka (sv) c

Adjective

The double volute spring in these shears automatically opens the blades when the user's grip relaxes

volute (not comparable)

1. (engineering) Of a spring: having a spiral curve on its tail.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɔ.lyt/

Noun

volute f (plural volutes)

1. (architecture) volute
2. (music, lutherie) scroll (of a musical instrument)

Further reading

• “volute”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Participle

volute f pl

1. feminine plural of voluto

Latin

Participle

volūte

1. vocative masculine singular of volūtus