Vulcan
Language: English
Part of speech: name
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈvʌlkən/
Forms: form: Vulcans
Etymology: From Middle English Vulcan, Vulcanus, Wlcan, from Old English Ulcanus (genitive), from Classical Latin Vulcānus, probably from Etruscan although very unclear, but unknown meaning and further origin (see more in Latin entry). Doublet of bolcane and volcano.
Proper noun sense 2.5 (“hypothetical planet”) is a semantic loan from French Vulcan, coined by French physicist, mathematician and astronomer Jacques Babinet in 1846, who proposed this name after the god for a planet close to the Sun.
Noun senses 1 (“blacksmith; metalworker”), 2 (“one who is lame”), and 3 (“fire”) are allusions to Vulcan as the god of fire and metalworking and his lameness. Compare Middle French Vulcan (“blacksmith; metalworker”), also attested in early modern French meaning “fire” in apparently isolated use.
Noun sense 4 (“volcano”) is from Middle English wlcane, originally after Middle French Vulcan, wlcan, and chiefly after Spanish volcán in subsequent use, ultimately arising from Latin Vulcānus and Italian Vulcano as a name for Mount Etna and one or more of the Aeolian Islands (with active volcanoes on the islands now called Vulcano and Stromboli), probably after Arabic بُرْكَان (burkān, “volcano”), ultimately reflecting the Latin and Italian place names.
Senses: examples: text: The goddess Venus was the wife of Vulcan.
text: But I perceiue nowe that all red colloured stones are not Rubies, nether is euery one Alexander that hath a stare in his cheke, al lame men are not Vulcans, nor hooke nosed men Ciceroes, nether each professor a poet.
ref: 1579, Thomas Lodge, A Defence of Poetry, Music, and Stage-Plays, […], London: […] Shakespeare Society, published 1853, →OCLC, page 15:
topics: human-sciences
mysticism
mythology
philosophy
sciences
related: word: Vulcanus
glosses: The god of volcanoes and fire, especially the forge, also the patron of all craftsmen, especially blacksmiths. The Roman counterpart of Hephaestus.
glosses: A placename.
A town in Vulcan County, southern Alberta, Canada.
glosses: A placename.
A volcano in Papua New Guinea.
glosses: A placename.
A place in Romania.
A commune of Brașov County, Romania.
glosses: A placename.
A place in Romania.
A city in Hunedoara County, Romania.
glosses: A placename.
A place in Romania.
A village in the commune of Apold, Mureș County, Romania.
glosses: A placename.
A place in Romania.
A village in the commune of Ciuruleasa, Alba County, Romania.
glosses: A placename.
A place in the United States.
A ghost town in Gunnison County, Colorado.
glosses: A placename.
A place in the United States.
An unincorporated community in Norway Township, Dickinson County, Michigan.
glosses: A placename.
A place in the United States.
An unincorporated community in Iron County, Missouri.
glosses: A placename.
A place in the United States.
An inactive volcano in New Mexico, United States.
examples: text: When Mercury's orbit was discovered to deviate from the predictions from Isaac Newton's laws of gravity, astronomers hypothesized the existence of planet Vulcan, whose gravity could be used to affect Mercury in such a way that Newton's laws were obeyed.
ref: 2025, Neil deGrasse Tyson, “Planets, Moons, and Cosmic Debris”, in Just Visiting This Planet, Revised and Updated for the Twenty-First Century (Science / Astronomy), Blackstone Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 37:
topics: astronomy
natural-sciences
glosses: A placename.
A hypothetical planet proposed in the 19th century to exist in an orbit between Mercury and the Sun.
glosses: A placename.
Ellipsis of Vulcan County.
Derived terms: Vulcan County
vulcanicity
vulcanic
Vulcanic
vulcanism
vulcanist
vulcanite
vulcanization
vulcanize
vulcanological
vulcanologist
vulcanology
Related terms: volcano
Vulcanalia
Vulcanian