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[14] Volume is one of a sizeable family of English words that go back to Latin volvere ‘roll, turn’. Others include convolution [16], convolvulus [16], devolution [16], evolution, involve [14], revolt, revolution, revolve, vault, volte-face [19], and voluble [16]. Volume itself comes via Old French volum from Latin volūmen, a derivative of volvere. The sense ‘book’ evolved from the notion of a ‘roll’ of parchment. The word came to have connotations of a ‘big’ book, and this gave rise in the 16th century to the sense ‘size of a book’. By the 17th century this had broadened out to ‘size’ in general, but the modern sense ‘size of sound’ did not emerge until the early 19th century. Latin volvere itself came ultimately from the Indo- European base *wol-, *wel- ‘turn’, which also produced English wallow.
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