Vulcan
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: derivation
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.
Affixes: -an
Inflected forms:
form: Vulcans
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: more Vulcan
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most Vulcan
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: A blacksmith; a metalworker.
pos: noun
tags: countable
examples: How ſay you fryer Robert, out of what foꝛge came theſe warlike engins? they were hammered in Salamanca the ſeuenth day of March, 1602. and are as you ſee, read hote. But what Vulcan was the woꝛkeman of them?
Cingis-chan (as Haithon and others ſay, his contemporaries) was at firſt by profeſſion a Vulcan or Black-ſmith, by condition a good honeſt ſimple man: […]
Dis ille aduersis genitus fatoque sinistro, / Quem pater ardentis massae fuligine lippus / A carbone et forcipibus gladiosque paranti / Incude et luteo Volcano ad rhetora misit.
This bearer is the Vulcan of our village, and one of the eaters of us farmers. He hath a design to buy his goods at the fountain head in the country.
Aprons are Defences; against injury to cleanliness, to safety, to modesty, sometimes to roguery. From the thin slip of notched silk (as it were, the emblem and beatified ghost of an Apron), which some highest-bred housewife, sitting at Nürnberg Workboxes and Toyboxes, has gracefully fastened on; […] to those jingling sheet-iron Aprons, wherein your otherwise half-naked Vulcans hammer and smelt in their smelt-furnace,—is there not range enough in the fashion and uses of this Vestment?
In place of the bow-legged tailor, sitting at his board; the tubercular Sheffield grinder coughing out his lungs; or the seamstress, toiling away for dear life in the attic, we have the sturdy blacksmith, a Vulcan at the forge; […]
gloss: One who is lame (unable to walk properly), especially with a twisted or otherwise misshapen leg.
pos: noun
tags: archaic
countable
examples: To make you merry that are the Gods of Art, and guides vnto heauen, a number of rude Vulcans, vnweldy ſpeakers, hammer-headed clownes (for ſo it pleaſeth them in modeſtie to name themſelues) haue ſet their deformities to view, as it were in a daunce here before you.
And therefore ſo many, who are ſiniſtrous unto Good Actions, are Ambi-dexterous unto bad, and Vulcans in virtuous Paths, Achilleſes in vitious motions.
[T]hus array’d and ſtump’d, they commend his garb and mein to their neighbours, to make them appear ſuch limping Vulcans as he is.
The man was a Hercules, or perhaps a Vulcan would be better, since his right leg was twisted and misshapen, and sensibly shorter than its fellow.
gloss: Fire; a fire.
pos: noun
tags: countable
literary
obsolete
uncountable
examples: Comme vn foible Vulcan, que la troupe frilleuſe / Des paſteurs laiſſe cheoir dans l’orée fueilleuſe / D’vne vaſte foreſt, ſe tient coy quelque tems, / Eſleuant des nuaux fumeuſement flottans / Sur vn humble buiſſon: puis aydé par Zephire / Fait voye rougiſſant aux efforts de ſon ire: / Monte du bas hallier au flairant Aubeſpin, […]
[Ὅ]ταν δὲ τὸν ἄνδρα τῆς ἀδελφῆς ἠφανισμένον ἐν θαλάττῃ καὶ μὴ τυχόντα νομίμου ταφῆς θρηνῶν λέγῃ μετριώτερον ἂν τὴν συμφορὰν ἐνεγκεῖν / Εἰ κείνου κεφαλὴν καὶ χαρίεντα μέλεα / Ἥφαιστος καθαροῖσιν ἐν εἵμασιν ἀμφεπονήθη, / τὸ πῦρ οὕτως, οὐ τὸν θεὸν προσηγόρευσε.
[I]n the midſt they make their Vulcan or fire near to a great Tree, upon the ſnags whereof they hang their kettles fil’d with the Veniſon; […]
[N]or let the crude Humors dance / In heated Braſs, ſteaming with Fire intenſe; / Altho’ Devonia much commends the Uſe / Of ſtrengthning Vulcan; […]
Thence to the South as far extend thy eyes; / There rival flames with equal glory riſe, / From ſhelves to ſhelves ſee greedy Vulcan roll, / And lick up all their Phyſick of the Soul.
What a strange, Titanic thing this Fire, this Vulcan, here at work in the night in this bog, far from men, dangerous to them, consuming earth, gnawing at its vitals!
If we have had the dominion of one element shown, now we behold the opposing element. Fire, fighting the waters. This Vulcan, or heat, is chiefly borne by the winds who dry up the streams.
gloss: A volcano.
pos: noun
tags: countable
obsolete
examples: Mas de los fuegos, que ay en Bolcanes de Indias, que tienen digna conſideracion, diraſe commodamente, quando ſe trate de la diuerſidad de tierras, donde eſſos fuegos, y bolcanes ſe hallan.
Some think that this was a hill, on the top whereof were Lions and Vulcans of fire, about the middle was paſture and Goats, at the foot Serpents, which Bellerophon made habitable: […]
Not to mention that the Number of theſe may, in divers Places, be much increaſed, by thoſe Vulcans, that have open Vents to diſcharge their Fumes into the Air; […]
From the Vulcan of Soconuſco, to the Vulcans of Amilpas, is twelve Leagues. This is all very high and remarkable Land. The two higheſt Vulcans have each a River of freſh Water right againſt them. Theſe Vulcans ſend out Smoke ſometimes, but not often.
gloss: Of, relating to, resembling, or characteristic of the fictional Vulcans.
pos: adj
examples: On the other hand, any being with intellect, will and self-awareness is, by definition, human, whatever its outward appearance or solar system of origin. Captain Kirk is properly Terran, as Spock is Vulcan or Worf is Klingon. They are all human.
After her [Michael Burnham’s] human parents were killed by Klingons, she was raised by a Vulcan father and a human mother, along with the couple’s biological child, Spock. “Burnham was envisioned as a woman who must find the balance between two distinctly different ideologies,” said [Sonequa] Martin-Green. “Being human yet indoctrinated with a Vulcan way of life causes an inner conflict that is familiar to a lot of people.”
She demonstrated her singing abilities on the show, often accompanying herself on the Vulcan lyre.
gloss: Lacking emotion or overly analytical and boring.
pos: adj
tags: derogatory
slang
examples: The military has staffing down to a science (note that the top job is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff). Even four-star generals can think like a staffer. [Colin] Powell’s natural human instinct as a principal might be to run for president, but his Vulcan-staffer side tells him it’s a crazy idea.
The same could be said of Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel), a forensic anthropologist on “Bones” who is so driven and unfeeling that she has to have human emotions explained to her by an F.B.I. agent. (After six seasons, she has warmed up a little, but she hasn’t completely lost her Vulcan detachment.)
This car is a victim of C.I., that is, "corporate image." As a brand, Acura is so lacking in emotion it's practically Vulcan.
Translations: