Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday December 16, 2003
velleity \vuh-LEE-i-tee\
, noun:
1. Volition in its weakest form.
2. A mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.
Fortunately it did no more than stress, the better to mock if you like, an innate velleity.
-- Samuel Beckett, Molloy
My guess is that instead of being men of decision we are in reality men of velleity.
-- Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander
Have you come across the word velleity? A nice Thomistic ring to it. Volition at its lowest ebb. A small thing, a wish, a tendency. If you're low-willed, you see, you end up living in the shallowest turns and bends of your own preoccupations.
-- Don DeLillo, Underworld
Velleity stems from the Latin word velle which meant "to be willing." The suffix -ity is used for abstract nouns.
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for velleity
