volere

Forms

volere (first-person singular present vòglio, first-person singular past historic vòlli, past participle volùto, first-person singular future vorrò, second-person singular imperative vògli, auxiliary avére)^[1] Old and literary forms include vo’ (Tuscan, before a verb) and vuò for voglio, vuoli for vuoi, vole for vuole, volemo for vogliamo and vonno for vogliono, and the past historic volsi beside volli.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *volēre, the Vulgar Latin form that replaced the irregular classical infinitive of Latin velle (“to want”).^[5][6][7][1] The new infinitive was built on the present stem of the verb, as in “volo” “I want”,^[6][8] and modelled on potere, Vulgar Latin *potēre for classical posse: both verbs had perfects in “-ui”, like the regular second-conjugation verbs of the type timeō (“to fear”).^[9][10][5] Forms of the remade verb appear in late texts, Late Latin volemus in the 8th century and voles in the 9th, and volet may already occur in Petronius.^[5]

The same verb is French vouloir, Occitan voler, Catalan voler and Romanian vrea.^[6][11] The classical verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose, wish”);^[12] its relatives include Old Church Slavonic волити (voliti, “to want”), Lithuanian vélti (“to wish, prefer”), Gothic 𐍅𐌹𐌻𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wiljan, “to want”), Old High German wellan and Old English willan, the ancestor of English will.^[12][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in 1219.^[6][7] At the end of the 13th century the Novellino and Brunetto Latini use it for being firmly resolved to do or to obtain something.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The auxiliary use, volere with an infinitive, goes back to Latin, where rogare te volo “I want to ask you” could stand for a plain future “I will ask you”;^[5] Old French and the popular French of Paris also gave the construction a future sense.^[5]

Dante (1300–1313) has most of the modern senses: demanding that someone else act, being of firm will, needing or requiring something, and the will of a higher power, as in the line “vuolsi così colà dove si puote / ciò che si vuole” (it is so willed where what is willed can be done).^[5] The sense “to believe, maintain” is in his Convivio (1304–1308).^[5] Boccaccio (1348–1353) uses it for intense desire, Luigi Pulci (before 1484) the softening conditional vorrei, and Tommaseo–Bellini (1879) records the sense “to ask a price”.^[5]

The infinitive used as a noun, “will”, dates from Dante (before 1321): “Ben fiorisce ne li uomini il volere” (the will blossoms well in men, Paradiso 27); the plural voleri, “intentions”, is in Boccaccio.^[5][13] Voler bene, “to love”, has a Latin precedent in Catullus' bene velle,^[5] while volerne a qualcuno, “to bear someone a grudge”, is a Gallicism from French en vouloir à quelqu'un (from 1636).^[5]

Timeline

• 1219 – First record of the verb.^[6][7]
• Late 13th century – The Novellino and Brunetto Latini use it for “to be resolved to do”.^[5]
• 1300–1313 – Dante uses it for “to demand” and “to require”.^[5]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses the infinitive as a noun, “will”.^[5][7]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for intense desire, and the plural voleri “intentions”.^[5]
• Before 1484 – Luigi Pulci uses the conditional to soften a wish.^[5]
• 1636 – French en vouloir à is recorded, the model of volerne a.^[5]
• 1879 – Tommaseo–Bellini records the sense “to ask a price”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To be determined to do or to get something: vuole finire la tesi entro giugno.^[7][2][3]
2. To intend, in a weaker sense: non volevo disturbarla.^[7][2]
3. To want, wish, desire, often in the conditional in polite requests: vorrei un caffè, per favore.^[7][3][1]
4. To demand something of someone: il direttore vuole il rapporto entro stasera.^[3][2]
5. Of things, to need, require: queste piante vogliono molta luce.^[3]
6. In polite formulas, to be so kind as to: vuole sedersi?.^[7][2]
7. In set phrases: voler bene, to love, be fond of, voler dire, to mean.^[7][5]

Noun

1. will, wish: il volere degli elettori.^[7][2][3]
2. (in the plural) Intentions, purposes.^[7][2][3]

Word family

• volente
• voglia
• rivolere
• disvolere
• benvolere

Related words

• volontà
• volontario
• volentieri
• nolente
• Latin volō
• French vouloir

Usage notes

As a modal verb volere usually takes the auxiliary of the verb that follows (è voluta restare, ha voluto mangiare), though avere is common with intransitive verbs too, to stress the will; with a reflexive verb the auxiliary is essere if the pronoun comes first and avere if it is attached to the infinitive (non si è voluto fermare, non ha voluto fermarsi).^[4]

The proverb l'erba “voglio” non cresce nemmeno nel giardino del re (“I want” does not grow even in the king's garden) is said to someone who makes too many demands.^[2][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f g Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
6. ^ a b c d e f Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
8. ^ Gabrielli, Aldo (2020), Grande dizionario italiano, digital ed., Milano: Hoepli
9. ^ Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975)
10. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca