VulcanVulcan

The story

From Middle English Vulcan, Vulcanus, Wlcan, from Old English Ulcanus (genitive), from Classical Latin Vulcānus, probably from Etruscan although very unclear, but unknown meaning and further origin (see more in Latin entry).1uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. Etymology 1, proper noun sense 2.5 (‘hypothetical planet’) is a semantic loan from French Vulcan, coined by French physicist, mathematician and astronomer Jacques Babinet in 1846, who proposed this name after the god for a planet close to the Sun. Noun senses etymology 1 1 (‘blacksmith; metalworker’), etymology 1 2 (‘one who is lame’), and etymology 1 3 (‘fire’) are allusions to Vulcan as the god of fire and metalworking and his lameness. Etymology 1, noun sense 4 (‘volcano’) is from Middle English wlcane, originally after Middle French Vulcan, wlcan, and chiefly after Spanish volcán in subsequent use, ultimately arising from Latin Vulcānus and Italian Vulcano as a name for Mount Etna and one or more of the Aeolian Islands (with active volcanoes on the islands now called Vulcano and Stromboli), probably after Arabic بُرْكَان (burkān, “volcano”), ultimately reflecting the Latin and Italian place names.