- 1
Voluble describes someone who talks a lot, easily and fast — the words just roll out of them. It is a formal, word; you meet it in novels and journalism, not really in daily chat. It usually leans positive or at least neutral: a voluble person is lively, warm, never stuck for something to say. But it can carry a small hint of "maybe too much", depending on the sentence — "he became voluble after three beers" is not really praise. You use it about people (a voluble guest), about their speech (a voluble apology, voluble praise, voluble complaints), and often about someone who is normally quiet and suddenly opens up: "she was voluble on the subject of her neighbours." Compare it with its neighbours: talkative is the plain everyday word; is friendly and light; garrulous and long-winded are clearly negative, meaning boring and endless. Voluble sits in the middle and adds the idea of speed and ease, not just quantity.
話多的、滔滔不絕的、口若懸河的
組成From French volubile, from Latin volūbilis meaning "rolling, turning easily", from volvō "I roll". So a voluble person is someone whose words roll out smoothly, without catching.
同家族的字
- revolvesame Latin volvere, to roll or turn
- revolutionfrom the same root: a turning around
- involveliterally to roll something in, same root
- volumefrom the same root — a volume was originally a rolled-up scroll
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
volubleadj/ˈvɒl.jʊ.bəl/
- 1
Fluent or having a ready flow of speech.
- A moſt acute Iuuvenal, voluble and free of grace, […]
- What fun shone in his eyes as he recalled some of her fine speeches, and repeated them, imitating her voluble delivery!
- 2
Of thoughts, feelings, or something that is expressed: expressed readily or at length and in a fluent manner.
- Thus farr the occaſion of this diſcours againſt Tumults; now to the diſcours itſelf, voluble anough, and full of ſentence, but that, for the moſt part, either ſpecious rather then ſolid, or to his cauſe nothing pertinent.
- He heard[…]the voice of the drunken woman, now sober, poured out in voluble remorse, and in voluble promise of amendment for the future, to every one who passed, if they would let her off easy.
- 3
Easily rolling or turning; having a fluid, undulating motion.
- Seen from the west, their sky-line gallops away north and south like a sea-serpent in voluble motion.
- 4
biologybotanynatural-sciencesTwisting and turning like a vine.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。