Where it sits
Locke placed it at the very bottom of the scale of wanting — present, but doing nothing.
Tell it apart
| Aspect | Velleity | Volition |
|---|---|---|
| Produces action | No | Yes |
| Locke's phrase | Lowest degree of desire | — |
| Can be deferred | Nothing to defer | Yes |
| Same faculty | Yes | Yes |
Volition is will that moves the body. Velleity is will that never leaves the chair. They're the same faculty measured at opposite ends — which is why Locke could call velleity simply the lowest degree of desire rather than a different thing entirely.
What it doesn't mean
It's in Dictionary.com, Wiktionary and Etymonline, with citations from Locke, Lowell and Eliot. Fully attested since the 1610s — one of the genuinely solid words on any 'beautiful rare words' list.
Procrastination is deferred action — something you intend to do and haven't yet. Velleity is desire that never reaches the threshold of action at all. There's nothing to defer.
What it really means
There's a specific kind of wanting that produces nothing. Not a decision you're putting off — that's procrastination, and it at least implies an intention exists somewhere. This is wanting that never gets as far as intending.
English has had a word for it since the 1610s. Velleity, from Latin velle, to will — so literally will-ness, the abstract noun of willing, hollowed out until nothing is left but the shape.
John Locke put it precisely, and his phrasing is still the best definition available: velleity is the lowest degree of desire — so faint that it carries a man no farther than some faint wishes. Not weakness of will. Something further down than that, where the will registers a preference and then simply doesn't engage.
The distinction from procrastination is worth holding onto, because they feel similar from inside and aren't. Procrastination has a deadline attached, a thing you meant to do, and a guilt that tracks the delay. Velleity has none of that. There's nothing to defer — you'd like the book to be written, in the way you'd like the weather to be better, and no part of you has ever moved toward a pen.
T.S. Eliot used it in 1917, in a line that gets the register exactly: velleities and carefully caught regrets. Both of those are things people collect instead of doing anything.
Where it comes from
Latin — to wish, to will
Latin — -ness, state of
Literally 'will-ness' — the abstract noun of willing, hollowed out.
- 1610s
First English attestation. John Locke later glosses it as 'the lowest degree of desire' — so faint it carries a man no farther than some faint wishes.
- 1917
T.S. Eliot uses it in 'Portrait of a Lady' — 'velleities and carefully caught regrets'.
In real life
- Learning Italian was a velleity: he liked the idea every January and never bought the book.
- Her plan to start running was less a plan than a velleity, revived each time she saw someone jogging past the café.
- We all have a velleity or two, the guitar in the loft, the novel in the drawer, wishes too faint to become attempts.
Questions
Q01Is velleity a real word?
Yes — attested from the 1610s and listed in Dictionary.com, Wiktionary and Etymonline, with usage by Locke, Lowell and T.S. Eliot. It's one of the solidly attested words on the 'beautiful rare word' circuit.
Q02How is it different from just wanting something?
Wanting can produce effort. Velleity is definitionally effortless — Locke called it 'the lowest degree of desire', so faint it carries a person no further than some faint wishes.
Q03Who used it famously?
T.S. Eliot in 'Portrait of a Lady' (1917) — 'velleities and carefully caught regrets' — and James Russell Lowell in 1870.