- volatile
- 1597 "fine or light," also "evaporating rapidly" (1605), from M.Fr. volatile, from L. volatilis "fleeting, transitory, flying," from pp. stem of volare "to fly," of unknown origin. Sense of "readily changing, fickle" is first recorded 1647. Volatiles in M.E. meant "birds, butterflies, and other winged creatures" (c.1300).