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In Early Latin poetry, a handful of passages attest to the use of uolup, mainly in fixed expressions suchas uolup est ‘it is a pleasure’ and uolup facio ‘to please’. The word falls into disuse in Classical Latin, butreappears in the Imperial period, only to regain limited vitality in Late Antiquity (mainly in thevariant uolupe). The form uolup gives rise to questions regarding both its origin and its categorial status as anoun, adjective or adverb. The present paper discusses these issues by analyzing the meanings and functionsof uolup in its contexts of use.