English

Noun

velleity ‎(plural velleities)

1. The lowest degree of desire or volition, with no effort to act.
   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow:

     This connoisseuse of “splendid weaknesses”, run not by any lust or even velleity but by vacuum: by the absence of human hope.

2. A slight wish not followed by any effort to obtain.
   • 1919, The Times, 24 Oct 1919, page 12, column A:

     The debate in the House of Lords would convert the impartial listener from any velleity towards single-chamber government.

   • 2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage 2007, page 372:

     Who could have imagined then, in Crumpsall, that the ancient Jewish hope, ‘Next year in Jerusalem’ – for so long more a velleity than a hope, the feeblest and most unanticipated of anticipations – would be realised in their lifetime and that they would be able to stand here, under the watchful eye of Israeli soldiers, but otherwise unimpeded, together?

   • 1995, Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age, Bantam Books 2008, page 47:

     The difficulty of getting here prevented people from coming on a velleity.

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