Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or originating in the will.
  • adjective Expressing a wish or permission.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the power to will; exercising volition.
  • Originating in the will.
  • In rhetoric, expressing a wish or permission: as, a volitive proposition.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the will; originating in the will; having the power to will.
  • adjective (Gram.) Used in expressing a wish or permission as, volitive proposition.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective of or pertaining the will or volition
  • adjective in the volitive
  • noun uncountable, linguistics A verb form found in certain languages which indicates that a certain action is willed, although it may not be performed in fact.
  • noun linguistics A specific volitive form of a verb.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin volitivus (from volitare ("to flee") + -ivus), a Scholastic translation of the Ancient Greek θελητικός (thelatikos), from θέλησις (thelesis, "a will, a willing")

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