a. and sb. Also 7 volutive. [ad. med. or mod.L. *volitivus (whence It., Sp. volitivo), or f. VOLIT-ION + -IVE.]
A. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to the will; volitional.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Ductor, I. i. rule 2 § 4. The Volitive or chusing faculty cannot [take the name of conscience], but the intellectual may.
a. 1676. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man. (1677), 29. The Command that is given by the volitive Faculty of the Soul.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, II. 359. The ordinate and actual power of God … which some terme Gods Volutive Power.
1799. Sir H. Davy, in Beddoes, Contrib. Phys. & Med. Knowl., 139. The perceptive and volitive powers depend … on the constant supply of … phosoxydated blood to the nervous and muscular systems.
1811–31. Bentham, Logic, Wks. 1843, VIII. 280. The volitional, or volitive faculty, or, in one word, the will.
1878. Maccall, trans. Letourneau’s Biol., 386. In effect the deep cells of the cortical layers are motory, or rather volitive.
2. Originating in, arising from, the will.
1675. Baxter, Cath. Theol., II. II. 32. So that no man ever sinned by meer Action as such, whether Vital, Intellectual, or Volitive.
3. Performed deliberately or with express intention; designed, deliberate.
1842. J. Rogers, Anti-Popery (ed. 3), 222. [The clergy’s] intentional cruelty, their volitive despotism and oppression, their willed persecution, torture, and murder in reference to Luther and the like.
4. Gram. Expressive of a wish or desire; desiderative.
1864. Webster, s.v., A volitive proposition.
1894. W. G. Hale, in Classical Rev., April, 167/2. The Greek … Subjunctives of Will (volitive) and … of Anticipation (anticipatory or prospective).
B. sb. A desiderative verb, mood, etc.
a. 1813. Murray, Hist. European Lang. (1823), II. 280. Volitives or desideratives are formed by using the future consignificative sa with the doubled verb.
1894. W. G. Hale, in Classical Rev., April, 167/2. The volitives never have ἄν.
