https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/20/in-breaking-their-fragile-truce-israel-and-iran-have-opened-a-pandoras-box
"Usually voluble Israeli spokesmen fell strangely silent."

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voluble
1: easily rolling or turning : ROTATING
2: characterized by ready or rapid speech : GLIB, FLUENT

Etymology
Middle English volible, voluble "able to turn, changing," borrowed from
Latin volubilis "turning on its axis, rolling, flowing, (of speech) readily
flowing, fluent," from volū-, variant stem of volvere "to set in a circular
course, cause to roll" + -bilis "capable (of acting) or worthy (of being
acted upon)" — more at WALLOW entry 1, -ABLE

On 21/04/24 17:25, Ken Blake wrote:

> https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/20/in-breaking-their-fragile-truce-israel-and-iran-have-opened-a-pandoras-box
>"Usually voluble Israeli spokesmen fell strangely silent."
>
> https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voluble 1: easily rolling
> or turning : ROTATING 2: characterized by ready or rapid speech :
> GLIB, FLUENT
>
> Etymology Middle English volible, voluble "able to turn, changing,"
> borrowed from Latin volubilis "turning on its axis, rolling, flowing,
> (of speech) readily flowing, fluent," from volū-, variant stem of
> volvere "to set in a circular course, cause to roll" + -bilis
> "capable (of acting) or worthy (of being acted upon)" — more at
> WALLOW entry 1, -ABLE

The quoted sentence looks perfectly normal to me, and for me "voluble"
is a well-known and moderately common word. But only in M-W sense 2. I
had never heard of its sense 1.

A quick check with OneLook suggests that the "turning" sense does not
appear in BrE dictionaries.

--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW

On Sun, 21 Apr 2024 20:35:15 +1000, Peter Moylan wrote:

> The quoted sentence looks perfectly normal to me, and for me "voluble"
> is a well-known and moderately common word. But only in M-W sense 2. I
> had never heard of its sense 1.
>
> A quick check with OneLook suggests that the "turning" sense does not
> appear in BrE dictionaries.

Thanks for confirming the rapidly turning (or easily turning) sense isn't
listed in BrE dictionaries. I had personally never heard it being used.

I could kind of tell what it meant from the context, but I still needed to
look it up to make sure of what it meant in that sentence.

On 23/04/2024 1:53 a.m., Ken Blake wrote:
> On Sun, 21 Apr 2024 20:35:15 +1000, Peter Moylan wrote:
>
>> The quoted sentence looks perfectly normal to me, and for me "voluble"
>> is a well-known and moderately common word. But only in M-W sense 2. I
>> had never heard of its sense 1.
>>
>> A quick check with OneLook suggests that the "turning" sense does not
>> appear in BrE dictionaries.
>
> Thanks for confirming the rapidly turning (or easily turning) sense isn't
> listed in BrE dictionaries. I had personally never heard it being used.
>
> I could kind of tell what it meant from the context, but I still needed to
> look it up to make sure of what it meant in that sentence.
>

As you might expect, OED has both the "turning" and the "talkative"
senses, but the former are marked as "now rare". From the citations
shown, I'd say any use in this sense after the mid-1700s looks
archaizing. I wonder whether it lasted longer in AmE, or whether M-W
includes it just for historical reasons?