| 释义 |
velleity|vɛˈliːɪtɪ|
Also 7 velleitie.
[ad. med.L. velleitāt-, velleitās, f. L. velle to will, wish: see -ity. Cf. F. velléité (16th c.), It. velleità, Sp. veleidad, Pg. velleidade.]
1. The fact or quality of merely willing, wishing, or desiring, without any effort or advance towards action or realization.
1618Bp. Hall Contempl., N.T. (1634) 101 Thy word alone, thy beck alone, thy wish alone, yea, the least act of velleity from thee might have wrought this cure. 1662Baxter Saints' R. iv. To Rdr. 831 We must distinguish..Between the simple Velleity of the Will, and the choice that followeth the Comparate act of the intellect. 1690Norris Beatitudes (1694) 105 By impotent willing meaning that natural Inclination or Velleity we have to every Good as such. 1768Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 20 Velleity can scarce be called a power, for a power which never operates is no power at all. 1808Bentham Sc. Reform 77 In your Lordship will is volition, clothed and armed with power—in me, it is bare inert velleity. 1838New Monthly Mag. LII. 110 This singular exuberance of velleity for education must presuppose a corresponding qualification for the task. 1866Lowell Study Wind. (1870) 191 Châteaubriand..had the same harmless velleity of self-destruction. 1867― Rousseau Prose Wks. 1890 II. 250 He and all like him mistake emotion for conviction, velleity for resolve.
2. With a and pl. A mere wish, desire, or inclination without accompanying action or effort.
Very common in the 17th c.; now somewhat rare.
1624F. White Repl. Fisher 78 The antecedent will of God is only a velleitie or wishing that a thing might be. 1640Bp. Reynolds Passions xvii. 180 They are onely Velleities and not Volitions: halfe and broken wishes, not whole desires. 1692J. Norris Curs. Reflect. 37 The same might also be illustrated from the Actions of the Will, some of which are perfect and compleat Determinations, others only Velleities or Endeavours. 1710― Chr. Prud. vi. 229 The one loves it only in some respect or degree, with an incomplete Love or Velleity as 'tis call'd. 1740Cheyne Regimen 315 We may have vehement Willings, Longings, Volitions, and Velleities. 1808Bentham Sc. Reform 2 Preceding administrations reckoned this..in the number of their velleities: what they had been thinking of doing, your Lordship has done. 1841Carlyle in Froude Life in Lond. (1884) I. 218 He had no fixed intentions, only rebellious impulses, blind longings and velleities. 1873Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country iv. 415 No matter what his least velleity, I was determined he should want no wish.
b. Const. with various preps., as after, against, for, of, towards (something). Also with to and inf.
1633Ames Fresh Suit agst. Ceremonies ii. 20 No imperfect velleities of good are so interpreted. 1652N. Culverwel Lt. Nature (1857) 268 Nature that has but some weak glimpses of Him, has but faint and languishing velleities after Him. 1680H. Dodwell Two Lett. (1691) 7 The designing the more noble end for the less noble..implies no volition, but only a velleity, for that which is more noble. Ibid. 48 Terrifying men from their sins, so as not only to make them entertain some strugling velleities against them [etc.]. 1795Hussey in Burke Corr. (1844) IV. 280 Some of her prelates have..showed a velleity to make a stand in the upper house. 1853Grote Greece ii. lxxxiv. XI. 102 The effect was not the less produced, of disgusting Dionysius with his velleities towards political good. 1861Mill Repr. Govt. 330 The executive, with their real but faint velleities of something better. 1887Dublin Rev. July 194 There is no reason to suspect the slightest velleity to bring any pressure to bear on the matter. |