velleity

This is another one of those words that has such a fragrance of emotion around it; to say it is to feel it.

Ewww, Zadie, that was awful.

Zadie Smith in an essay on George Eliot in The Guardian:

"Eliot dissects degrees of human velleity, finding the conscious action hidden within the impulse hidden within the desire hidden within the will tucked away deep inside the decision that we have obfuscated even from ourselves".

"'They may have coveted your silver—I am sure they did—but that was a mere passing velleity compared with their yearning for Mr Hadley's double-handed saws, adzes, jack-screws and many other bright steel objects I cannot name.'"
--Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 34

Seanahan: velleitous (per Kit Thompson) would become velleitious in your treatment. Still like it better?

I would say velletious instead of velletous, but since neither of those links are going to take you anywhere, the point is moot.

Here's Kit Thompson's narrative comment on MyFavoriteWord.com:

"I found this word on a quiet day in November, in my parent's 1906 Webster's International Dictionary, an immense tome that enjoys its own stand underneath a creepy oil portrait of a somber, walrus-mustached man -- who may or may not be a relative -- in a rather dark corner of the living room of my parents' 200 year old Cape Cod in the woods of Spring Hill Farm in Edgecomb, Maine.

The word is said to mean: "The lowest degree of desire; imperfect or incomplete volition."

"It is with great velleity that I get up, put on my socks and shoes, and head to work."

"Honey, you know I love you but to be perfectly honest, I'm feeling velleitous* about having relations tonight."

* not in the dictionary, unfortunately.