[ad. L. cōnātiōn-em, n. of action f. cōnārī to endeavor.)
† 1. Attempt, endeavor. Obs.
1615. Coke, Rep., XI. 98 b. The matter … ought to be an act or deed, and not a conation or an endeavour.
2. Philos. The faculty of volition and desire; also (with a. and pl.) the product of this faculty.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph. (1859), II. xl. 189. Phænomena of Desiring or Willing, or the powers of Conation. Ibid. (1877), II. 425. We find … the Feelings intermediate between the cognitions and the Conations.
1882. Ward Lester, in Internat. Rev., May. A term is needed to express this general conception of voluntary action or the action of the conative faculty. For this the somewhat mediæval term conation, perhaps not used since Sir William Hamilton, is … strikingly appropriate.
