Volens

Volens is a Latin present active participle of the verb velle, meaning “willing” or “desirous.” As a participle, it can function as an adjective agreeing with the noun it modifies, and it is declined like other present participles of third-declension adjectives. In classic texts, volens often appears predicatively or attributively to express readiness or inclination to act; it can pair with an infinitive or clausal complement to specify what is wished.

Etymology and form: volens is formed from the verb velle plus the participial suffix -ns, yielding the common Latin present participle pattern. In classical usage, the base form is volēns, with the stem volent-; the common English gloss remains “willing.” The participle furnishes masculine, feminine, and neuter forms and agrees with its noun in gender, number, and case. The surrounding syntax often uses volens with verbs of action to indicate willingness, such as volentī facere id or similar constructions, though the exact word order can vary by author and era. A well-known formula is volens nolens, meaning “willingly or unwillingly.”

Usage and scope: In Latin literature, volens is encountered across genres, including rhetoric, philosophy, and legal or formal prose. It captures a speaker’s or subject’s attitude toward a proposed action and can shade nuance from merely possible to actively inclined. In modern scholarly references, volens is typically cited as the standard present participle form rather than as a separate lexical item.

See also: velle, voluntas, voluntas.