vole
English
Etymology 1

Borrowed from Norn vollj, from Old Norse vǫllr (“field”). The Orkney dialectal name vole mouse, lit. "field mouse", was introduced to general English by George Barry in 1805; John Fleming in 1828 was first to refer to the creature by the epithet vole alone. Displaced earlier names for these species which also classified them as mice, e.g. short-tailed field mouse.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈvəʊl/
Audio (UK) (file) - Rhymes: -əʊl
Noun
vole (plural voles)
- Any of a large number of species of small rodents of the subfamily Arvicolinae of the family Cricetidae which are not lemmings or muskrats.
Derived terms
Translations
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Note: There is a systematic error in the entries below. "Vole" refers to hundreds of small rodent species living in all kinds of habitats. Many, but probably not all, of the translations refer to the "water vole", which is just one of the many species. When translating "vole" into other languages, one should look for words that refer to the voles as a group. Further details can be found on the Wikipedia articles on vole and on many of the species.
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Noun
vole (plural voles)
- A deal in a card game, écarté, that draws all the tricks.
- 1731, Jonathan Swift, Verses on the Death of Dr Swift
- Ladies, I'll venture for the vole.
- 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, Epilogue:
- With humble curate can I now retire,
- (While good Sir Peter boozes with the squire,)
- And at backgammon mortify my soul,
- That pants for loo, or flutters at a vole?
- 1731, Jonathan Swift, Verses on the Death of Dr Swift
Verb
vole (third-person singular simple present voles, present participle voling, simple past and past participle voled)
- (card games, intransitive) To win all the tricks by a vole.
- 1717, Alexander Pope, “The Fourth Satire of Dr. John Donne”, in The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintot, […], OCLC 43265629:
- no lad shall chuck, or lady vole, But some excising Courtier will have toll.
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Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for vole in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913)
Alemannic German
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle High German vol, voll, from Old High German foll, from Proto-Germanic *fullaz. Cognate with German voll, Dutch vol, English full, Icelandic fullur.
Czech
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈvolɛ]
Etymology 1
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Usage notes
This interjection is considered vulgar by some people, its primary meaning being "you ass"; however, it is today quite frequently used in very informal speech without any vulgar overtones, either as a friendly address or as an emphasizer; some people lard their talk with it without its having any meaning (similarly to the way some people use "fuck" in English, but "vole" is not so strong). It is often used in the form "ty vole".
Etymology 2
From Proto-Slavic [Term?] with unclear origin; possibly related to German schwellen, Wulst.[1][2]
Noun
vole n
Declension
Etymology 3
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
References
- "vole" in Jiří Rejzek, Český etymologický slovník, electronic version, Leda, 2007
- Machek, Václav (1968) Etymologický slovník jazyka českého, 2nd edition, Prague: Academia
Esperanto
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Derived terms
- vole nevole (“voluntarily or involuntarily, like it or lump it”)
French
Verb
vole
- inflection of voler:
- first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
- second-person singular imperative
Italian
Synonyms
Romanian
Declension
singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
nominative/accusative | (un) vole | voleul | (niște) voleuri | voleurile |
genitive/dative | (unui) vole | voleului | (unor) voleuri | voleurilor |
vocative | voleule | voleurilor |
References
- vole in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN
Serbo-Croatian
Volapük
Yola
References
- Jacob Poole (1867), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, page 76