nolition

English

Etymology

Latin nōlō (“not to will, to be unwilling”), patterned after volition from Latin volō.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /nəʊˈlɪʃən/, /nəˈlɪʃən/

Noun

nolition (plural nolitions)

  1. Adverse action of will; unwillingness.
    Antonym: volition
    • 1653, Jeremy Taylor, “Twenty-five Sermons Preached at Golden Grove; Being for the Winter Half-year, […]: Sermon V. [The Return of Prayers; or, The Conditions of a Prevailing Prayer.] Part II.”, in Reginald Heber, editor, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D. […], volume V, London: Ogle, Duncan, and Co. […]; and Richard Priestley, […], published 1822, →OCLC, page 76:
      [S]o long as the prayer is fervent, so long the man hath a nolition, and a direct enmity against the lust; he consents not all that while; but when the month is gone, and the prayer is removed, or becomes less active, then the temptation returns, and forages, and prevails, and seizes upon all our unguarded strengths.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “nolition”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

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