Meaning
A volcano is a vent or fissure in the Earth's crust from which molten rock, ash and gas erupt, and the mountain such eruptions build. Figuratively, a volcano is any person, relationship or situation that looks calm on the surface but is seething underneath and liable to explode without warning - an erupting temper, a pressure-cooker standoff, a simmering feud that finally blows. The plural is volcanoes or volcanos. The geological sense dominates; the figurative use stresses suppressed pressure ready to erupt, not mere size or heat. Capitalize Vulcan when naming the god. This entry extends the site's classical-eponym family - Mentor, Spartan, Tantalus and their kin. Regional use: Global English.
Origin
From Vulcan (Latin Vulcanus), the Roman god of fire and metalworking, whose forge - through his identification with Hephaestus - was believed to lie beneath Mount Etna, and whose festival, the Vulcanalia, fell on 23 August. The word entered English in the early 1600s from Italian vulcano, literally burning mountain; Etymonline traces it through the volcanic island Vulcano in the Aeolian Islands, named for the god, and notes the name was first applied to Mount Etna by the Romans. The OED's earliest evidence is 1613, in the writing of Samuel Purchas - verified directly; Etymonline says 1610s, noting an earlier English form volcan of the 1570s borrowed from French, and Merriam-Webster gives 1665, a disagreement reported. The figurative use for a suppressed, about-to-blow situation or temper is modern.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a dormant volcano
- an extinct volcano
- volcanoes
Usage Examples
- The boss sat behind his desk like a volcano, silent all morning, and everyone knew the eruption was coming by four.
- Their marriage had become a volcano of unspoken grievances; the smallest slight set it off.
- Fans described the stadium as a volcano about to blow in the final ten minutes.