From Latin volūta 'spiral,' from volvere 'to roll,' for the distinctive scroll ornament crowning Ionic columns.
A spiral scroll forming the main ornament of an Ionic capital in architecture.
From Latin volūta 'a spiral scroll,' feminine past participle of volvere 'to roll, turn.' The spiral ornaments on Ionic columns may have originated from the curling ends of papyrus scrolls, or from the spiral shells of marine mollusks. The Ionic order, with its characteristic volutes, originated in 6th-century BCE Ionia (western Turkey). Key roots: *wel- (Proto-Indo-European: "to turn, roll").