▪ I. ‖ volante
(voˈlante)
[Sp.: see volant a.]
A two-wheeled covered carriage drawn by a horse ridden by a postilion (freq. with another horse attached at the side), used in Spanish countries.
Mod. examples refer chiefly to Cuba.
| 1791 J. Townsend Journ. Spain (1792) I. 105 You pay for a volanté with a good mule, attended by a guide, five shillings a day. 1817 Keatinge Trav. I. 55 He is an author for the closet (a snug parlour we should say in England), and not for a volante. 1854 Bartlett Mex. Boundary I. i. 8 Towards evening..we took a volante and drove out to the bishop's palace. 1878 Masque Poets 185 Drawn (behind a jaunty Black-faced postilion) in a gay volante. |
Hence volantier, the owner or driver of a volante.
| 1791 J. Townsend Journ. Spain I. (1792) 77, I left Montpellier at five in the morning with a volantier of Barcelona. |
▪ II. volante
variant of volunty Obs.