The word volcano originates from the small volcanic island near to Sicily in Italy called Vulcano, which has experienced major eruptions for over 6,000 years. The Romans believed that this area was the chimney of the blacksmith of the Roman gods – Vulcan.
The word has a long history. Roles here were played by some of the key players in the development of the language.
His travel writing was some of the most popular in medieaval English. He was one of the most translated works of the time. Whether the writer actually went near to any of the places he describes is a matter of debate. But in 1425, he is the first person to record the volcano, writing about Mount Etna which is buring all the time.
In his Italian English dictionary in 1598 Florio defines the volcano as “a hill that continually burneth and casteth out flame and smoke”
In his Pilgrimage. while Purchas records a “flaming hill” where the fire can be seen more than 100 miles away.
In England at the time there were reports of eruptions in Iceland from Hekla and in Italy from Etna. These were even combined in a poem published in 1600 which describes “sulphurous fire” from Hekla in one line and Etna’s flames two lines later. There were many records of volcanos at the time e.g. in India. But the big eruption at Huaynaputina in Peru in 1600 went unrecorded in English – even though it resulted in bad harvest in the next year and some of the coldest winters ever recorded in Europe.
