velleity

velleity [vəˈliɪti] n.



1.) The fact or quality of merely willing, wishing, or desiring, without any effort or advance towards action or realization.
2.) A mere wish, desire, or inclination without accompanying action or effort (Oxford English Dictionary 2nd Edition).

Etymology: New Latin velleitas, from Latin velle, to wish.

"The consonance of the High Renaissance
Is present, though distorted by the mirror.
What is novel is the extreme care in rendering
The velleities of the rounded reflecting surface
(It is the first mirror portrait),
So that you could be fooled for a moment
Before you realize the reflection
Isn't yours" (Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashbery, 1975).
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I like this new development of people making requests. So, if anyone has a word they want defined by the OED (since not everyone has access to it), and located in a literary source (and pronounced) by yours truly, feel free to ask. Try to keep it within the bounds of something you would actually write in a paper, though. I don't want my blog turning into Luciferous Logolepsy.