A volatile person or thing can change its physical, emotional, or visual state suddenly.
"The Washington Football Team didn’t have a volatile kicking problem until they decided to release Dustin Hopkins." (riggosrag.com)
"However, shares of the company, backed by tech billionaire Peter Thiel, were down 2.4% at $26.1 in volatile trading before the bell." (reuters.com)
"In 2022 the third stage of the journey will get under way, amid dangerously volatile energy prices, fears of greenflation and rising geopolitical risks. It will require realism about the task ahead." (economist.com)
"The Amazon Smart Air Quality Monitor measures for volatile organic compounds (VLCs), which the EPA explains are often "human-made chemicals...produced in the manufacture of paints, pharmaceuticals, and refrigerants." If you've been using too much "cleaning, disinfecting, cosmetic, degreasing, and hobby products," your air monitor could warn you that the chemicals are lingering in the air." (androidcentral.com)
Suffix: -ile: state or quality of
Prefix: vol-: wish, will
Root: vol-: wish, will
Volatileness
Volatility
Volatize
Volatizable
Volatizing
Volatilized
Story of your word: Comes from the Latin verb "volare" meaning “to fly” which then in the 1500s and 1600s turned into the French word volatile meaning “to evaporate quickly or readily change”. In Middle English "volatile" meant any winged creature.
Language of origin: Latin
Geographic origin: Roman Empire
Older forms of the word and the meaning of those forms:
“winged creature”- Volatile (Middle English)
“To fly” - Volare (Latin)
“To evaporate quickly” or “to readily change” - Volatile (French)
How does the older meaning affect your understanding of today’s meaning?
The older meanings both relate to flight which relates to the current definition of the word because flying creatures can be unpredictable when they are on the ground and then suddenly fly.
Laila Sarezky