Did You Know?
"Devolve" evolved from a combination of Latin "volvere," a word that means "to roll," and the prefix "de-," meaning "down." (Other words that revolve around "volvere" are the five other words containing "-vol-" found in this paragraph.) Knowing which preposition to use with "devolve" can seem a bit involved, but it's really not all that convoluted. Responsibility or rights devolve "on," "upon," or "to" someone. When something comes into a present state by flowing down from a source, either literally or figuratively, we say "devolve from," as in "customs that devolve from old beliefs." And when the devolving is a downward evolution to a lower state we say "devolves into" (or sometimes "devolves to"), as in "order devolves into chaos."
