Shortened from Old Latin *volupe, from Proto-Indo-European *wolp-i (“hope”, noun) with an anaptyctic vowel inserted between the l and p, from *welp- (“to hope”), whence Ancient Greek ἔλπω (élpō, “to cause to hope”). The root *welp- has been alternately constructed by Hamp as *welh₁p-, and taken as a compound of *welh₁- (“to wish, want”) + *h₁ep- (“to reach, get”), literally “desire reaching, attaining one's wish”. While this is formally possible and semantically reasonable, the rather strange shape of the formation, lack of other evidence for said formation, as well as *h₁ep- usually being reconstructed as *h₂ep-, casts this reconstruction in doubt.