benevolence

noun
/bəˈnɛvələns/

Etymology

Circa 1400, original sense “good will, disposition to do good”, Old French benivolence from Latin benevolentia (also directly from Latin), literally “good will”, from bene (“well, good”) + volentia, form of volēns, form of volō (“to wish”), components cognate to English benefit and voluntary, more distantly will (via Proto-Indo-European).

  1. derived from benevolentia

Definitions

  1. Disposition to do good.

    • gesture of benevolence
    • show benevolence
    • spirit of benevolence
  2. Charitable kindness.

    • His acts of benevolence earned him great respect.
  3. An altruistic gift or act.

  4. + 1 more definition
    1. A kind of forced loan or contribution levied by kings without legal authority, first so…

      A kind of forced loan or contribution levied by kings without legal authority, first so called under Edward IV in 1473.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at benevolence. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01benevolence02altruistic03beneficent04philanthropic05philanthropy06charity

A definitional loop anchored at benevolence. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

6 hops · closes at benevolence

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA