Word of the Day for Tuesday, August 21, 2012

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.

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