Word
vulcan
Phoneticsvul·can
/ˈvəɫkən/
Definition
n. the Roman god of fire and metalworking. In modern stories, it also refers to a fictional alien race known for being very logical and showing no emotion.
n. the Roman deity of fire, metalworking, and the forge. In contemporary science fiction contexts, it refers to a member of a humanoid species characterised by extreme logic and the suppression of emotion.
Examples
“The ancient Romans built temples to honor Vulcan.”
“The blacksmith felt a deep connection to Vulcan as he hammered the glowing iron on his anvil.”
“In classical mythology, Vulcan was the divine smith who forged the thunderbolts of Jupiter, while modern pop culture has reimagined the name to represent a society governed entirely by cold, deductive reasoning.”
Examples
simple
“The ancient Romans built temples to honor Vulcan.”
contextual
“The blacksmith felt a deep connection to Vulcan as he hammered the glowing iron on his anvil.”
complex
“In classical mythology, Vulcan was the divine smith who forged the thunderbolts of Jupiter, while modern pop culture has reimagined the name to represent a society governed entirely by cold, deductive reasoning.”
Usage
When referring to the Roman god or the fictional species, it is treated as a proper noun and capitalised.
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.
From Vulcan (etymology 1), from the Star Trek TV series of the 1960s. The adjective is by analogy with -an.
From Vulcan (etymology 1).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Domain
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/vulcan