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Origin and history of vulva

vulva(n.)

"female external genitalia," especially the orifice, late 14c., from Latin vulva, earlier volva "womb, female sexual organ," perhaps literally "wrapper," from volvere "to turn, twist, roll, revolve," also "turn over in the mind" (from PIE root *wel- (3) "to turn, revolve," with derivatives referring to curved, enclosing objects).

Entries linking to vulva

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to turn, revolve," with derivatives referring to curved, enclosing objects.

It might form all or part of: archivolt; circumvolve; convoluted; convolution; devolve; elytra; evolution; evolve; Helicon; helicopter; helix; helminth; lorimer; ileus; involve; revolt; revolution; revolve; valve; vault (v.1) "jump or leap over;" vault (n.1) "arched roof or ceiling;" volte-face; voluble; volume; voluminous; volute; volvox; volvulus; vulva; wale; walk; wallet; wallow; waltz; well (v.) "to spring, rise, gush;" welter; whelk; willow.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit valate "turns round," ulvam "womb, vulva;" Lithuanian valtis "twine, net," vilnis "wave," apvalus "round;" Old Church Slavonic valiti "roll, welter," vlŭna "wave;" Greek eluein "to roll round, wind, enwrap," eilein "twist, turn, squeeze; revolve, rotate," helix "spiral object;" Latin volvere "to turn, twist;" Gothic walwjan "to roll;" Old English wealwian "roll," weoloc "whelk, spiral-shelled mollusk;" Old High German walzan "to roll, waltz;" Old Irish fulumain "rolling;" Welsh olwyn "wheel."

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    Trends of vulva

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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