vėl

Of uncertain origin.

Smoczynski tentatively takes the word as coming from the same origin as vėlùs (“late”), but doesn't trace the words' origin further back.^[1]

Buck derives the word either from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn, roll, wind”) or its Lithuanian descendant vélti (“to full cloth”), noting that various Indo-European branches derive words meaning "again" from a root meaning "to turn back", via a series of shifts "(to turn) back" > "back again" > "again". For such a development, compare Italian volta (“time, occasion”), derived from Latin volvō (“to roll, tumble”).^[2]

Another theory takes the word as possibly from Proto-Indo-European *-wē (“or”). Compare Latin vel (“or, even, and, either”) (-ve), Sanskrit वा (vā, “or”), and Ancient Greek ἤ (ḗ).

• IPA^(key): /ʋʲeːlʲ/

vė̃l

1. again