volontà

Forms

volontà f (invariable)^[1] Old and literary forms include Old Italian volontade, Old Italian volontate, Old Italian voluntà, Old Italian voluntade and Old Italian voluntate, and an old plural voluntati.^[2][3] Jacopone da Todi has voluntà in the 13th century and the Libro di dicerie volontade in the 14th.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin voluntās (“will, wish; good will”), from the accusative voluntātem.^[5][1][3] DEI counts it among the words found across the Romance languages, though not in Romanian, while Nocentini classes it as a borrowing from Latin.^[4][6] The short form voluntà lost the final syllable of voluntade, as other nouns in ⟨-tà⟩ did.^[3]

The same word is French volonté (Old French volenté, 12th century), Old Occitan volentat, Catalan volentat, Spanish voluntad and Portuguese vontade, and it passed into Basque borontate.^[7][4][6]

The Latin noun was formed from the old stem of the present participle of volō (“to want”), seen in volēns (“willing”), with the suffix -tās.^[6][1][8] The verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to strive after, choose”), also the source of Sanskrit वृणीते (vṛṇīté, “chooses”) and Old Church Slavonic велѣти (velěti, “to command”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the word to 1294, and Nocentini and Devoto–Oli to the 13th century.^[5][6][10] DELI's first dated sense is “the faculty of willing, the capacity to decide on and begin an action”, recorded in Dante, who died in 1321.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The other main senses followed in the 14th century: “an act of will” in Domenico Cavalca (before 1342) and “what someone wants” in Boccaccio's Decameron (1348–1353).^[11] Dante already writes of a person's last will in the singular in the Convivio (1304–1308), while the plural ultime volontà for the dispositions of a testament is first recorded in Sforza Pallavicino (1656–1657).^[11] The sense “good or bad disposition to do something” appears in Francesco Guicciardini, before 1540, and survives in buona volontà and cattiva volontà.^[11][12]

In the Paradiso Piccarda says of God: “E 'n la sua volontade è nostra pace” (“and in his will is our peace”).^[3] An old sense “passion, lust” is now obsolete.^[5][12] Modern philosophy and politics added volontà di potenza, rendering Nietzsche's “will to power”, and volontà politica, the concrete readiness to carry out a programme.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1294 – First record of the word, according to GRADIT.^[5]
• 13th century – Jacopone da Todi writes voluntà.^[4]
• 1304–1308 – Dante uses the word for a last will in the Convivio.^[11]
• Before 1321 – Dante uses it for the faculty of willing.^[11]
• Before 1342 – Domenico Cavalca uses it for an act of will.^[11]
• 1348–1353 – Boccaccio uses it for what someone wants.^[11]
• Before 1540 – Guicciardini uses it for a disposition to do something.^[11]
• 1656–1657 – The plural ultime volontà is used of a testament.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. will, willpower: the capacity to decide freely and to direct one's actions towards an aim: Le manca la volontà di finire gli studi.^[5][10][3]
2. An act of will; what someone wants or decides: Ha lasciato la ditta di sua spontanea volontà.^[5][10][12]
3. The collective readiness of a people or group to follow a course of action: la volontà popolare.^[5][3]
4. (in the plural) ultime volontà: the dispositions of a testament.^[5][12]
5. Willingness, commitment to a task: Lavora con molta volontà.^[5][10]
6. (obsolete) Passion, lust.^[5][12]

Word family

• volontario
• volontariato
• volontarietà
• volontarismo
• volontaristico
• involontario
• volenteroso

Related words

• volere
• volentieri
• Latin voluntās
• French volonté

Usage notes

Common phrases are a volontà (“as much as one likes”), buona volontà (“goodwill, commitment”), forza di volontà (“willpower”) and di spontanea volontà (“of one's own free will”).^[5][12][10] The word does not change in the plural.^[1][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 21, 995
3. ^ a b c d e f Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
4. ^ a b c d Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 4084
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b c d Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Devoto, Giacomo (1968), Avviamento alla etimologia italiana: dizionario etimologico, 2nd ed., Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b c d e Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ a b c d e f g Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
13. ^ Vocabolario della lingua italiana Treccani (2011), Roma: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana