Velleity

Velleity is defined as "the lowest degree of volition, a slight wish or tendency, inclination."

Author Bill Bryson defined it as that "which describes a mild desire, a wish or urge too slight to lead to action." Bryson uses velleity as a perfect example of "words [that] deserve to be better known." He argues rhetorically, "Doesn't that seem a useful term?"

Examples of usage

It has been defined primarily as "the lowest degree of desire or volition, with no effort to act." Thomas Pynchon, in Gravity's Rainbow, described, "This connoisseuse of 'splendid weaknesses', run not by any lust or even velleity but by vacuum: by the absence of human hope."

One blogger described velleity from a personal viewpoint as "I lacked the desire strong enough to inspire movement." A definition and an example given are:

a mild wish or urge too slight to lead to action. A mere wish, if you will, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it. For instance, say that you have a wish to change the cable channel, unaccompanied by a desire to find the remote control. (Q: Honey, why have you been watching Animal Planet for three hours? A: My own velleity). Or say you have a desire to catch the bus for work, unhampered by the impetus to run and catch it. (Velleity prevented me from being on time, boss).

One marketer, Matt Baily, described it as "a desire to see something done, but not enough desire to make it happen." He expressed an attempt "to bring it back, as it has more relevance now than ever." He writes that:

Velleity is what keeps companies locked in this mindset of reporting useless numbers. Desiring, even expecting to someday have an epiphany of change, but not willing to change the mindset or the culture of locked-in reporting to achieve it. Nor are they willing to ask the hard questions in order to uncover what must be done.

It may also be seen as "a slight wish not followed by any effort to obtain" the outcome. Author Howard Jacobson called it "the feeblest and most unanticipated of anticipations...."

In philosophy, velleity is the "capacity of alternative choice" -- or the "possibility of alternative choice thereto."

In psychology, it is thus:

an incipient act of volition. In a larger sense, velleity refers to a small but insufficient act of volition – i.e. one that was not brought to completion. Thus, velleity may suggest hesitation, to which we would contrast determination .... But sometimes, velleity is intentional, in the sense that the volition is intentionally incomplete; we intend our will to be no more than inchoate, tentative.

Friedrich Nietzsche describes the velleity of an artist as a "desire to be 'what he is able to represent, conceive, and express'...."

In criminal law, an inchoate offense, such as attempt, must start with some velleity, but needs to rise beyond that level of mere intent.

Translation of "Velleity"

French: Velléité.