circumvolation

English

Etymology

From Latin circumvolate, circumvolatum (“to fly around”), from circum + volare (“to fly”).

Noun

circumvolation (countable and uncountable, plural circumvolations) (archaic)

1. The act of flying round.
   • 1901, Zelia Nuttall, The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations, page 58:

     It has already been shown that, in the popular game of "the flyers," a high pole surmounted by one man served as the pivot for the circumvolation of the four performers, who "acted" the "flight of time."

   • 1903 November, Richard D. Micou, “The World of the Twenty-Second Century”, in University of Virginia Magazine, volume 47, page 119:

     Favourable conditions permitted the "circumvolation" of the world in twenty-four hours. But flying had not become general and was still the exclusive privilege of the council and its supporters.

   • 1845 March, C. W. Short, “Observations on the Botany of Illinois”, in The Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery, page 195:

     These insects, unlike all others of their kind I have ever seen, fall upon their prey without buzzing, circumvolation, or prelude of any sort: they dart with the rapidity of shot from the fowler's gun, and as soon as they have touched the animal on which they alight, seem already bedded in his skin, from which they are not to be dislodged but by main force and violence.

2. The act of surrounding with a military force; the creation of a cordon.
   • 1627 October 12, Charles Dalton, quoting Edward Cecil, Life and Times of General Sir Edward Cecil, published 1885, page 277:

     [N]everthelesse, to make the blockinge of it more easie, for there is no waie better to block upp a place then by approaching it soe nigh as may bee (especiallie, when an enemie is not expected that cann releive it by force), for the nigher you approche unto it, the narrower is the circumvolation, and then you blocke it upp more surer, with fewer menn, and lesse worke; then also, you take from the beseiged, the commoditie of water, and other thinges that lie without the Skonce, and then may you dismount their ordennance much better, beinge that in shootinge farr off you cannot shoote, either with that force or certaintie as shootinge nigh, wheare you shall not misse one shott.

   • 1790, John Gabriel Stedman, Narrative of Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam, published 2015:

     In Consequence a Party of the Rangers was instantly Detached thither to Assist in Pursuing them &c And About the Same Time, the long Projected Cordon or Path of Circumvolation was also begun to be Cut by 700 Negro Slaves Around the Colony, […]

3. Circulation; the act of moving around something.
   • 1718, Edward Ward, The London-spy Compleat, page 259:

     When by her Unalterable Circumvolation, ſhe had ſupply'd the Defects and Weakneſs of the Liquor; and made moſt of the Company Drunk and Giddy with obſerving the Nimbleneſs of her Tail; which, according to the Knife Grinders Song, rand Round and around, and a-round-a, ſhe gave a Stamp with her Foot, like a Doe-Rabbit after Bucking, which, ſerved as a Period to her Dance, which, according to Cuſtom, was Rewarded with a Clap, […]

   • 1790, Bell's New Pantheon, page 140:

     It may be conjectured that the circumvolation of these moved the ether, and occasioned that whistling, the gentle pleasantness of which bore an adequate agreement with their well-timed motion.

   • 1838, Moses Aaron Richardson, Richardson’s Descriptive Companion through Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, […], page 298:

     Liverpool and Manchester, after several years evidence of the result, improved on the experiment by an increase of the speed to the rate of 30 miles in 40 minutes; and now, looking telescopically to the more distant consequences of such miraculous achievements as we have seen performed, and such infinite speculations as are now every where going on in these enterprises, imagination is encouraged to perceive in the end prodigies no less than the circumvolation of the earth by future travellers with meteor velocity.

4. (figurative) Vacillation; the act of changing one's mind repeatedly.
   • 1722, Thomas Woolston, Works, page 67:

     The most unhappy Circumstance in our Protestant Priesthood of this Church, that is obnoxious to Laughter, is our Tergiversation and Circumvolation with every Wind of Doctrine, as it must be confess'd that we can stand fast to no Point long.

   • 1864, James Augustus Saint John, Weighed in the Balance, page 168:

     Faber was of the true stamp to experience the extreme of agony and the extreme of bliss, to torture himself with suspicions, to thrust the spikes of doubt into his sinews and muscles, to plunge into the mysterious Gehenna of jealousy, and through this circumvolation of torture to scale the citadel of happiness.