One who is benevolent genuinely wishes other people well, a meaning reflected clearly in the word's Latin roots: benevolent comes from bene, meaning "good," and velle, meaning "to wish." Other descendants of velle in English include volition, which refers to the power to make one's own choices or decisions, and voluntary, as well as the rare velleity, meaning either "the lowest degree of volition" or "a slight wish or tendency." A more familiar velle descendant stands directly opposed to benevolent: malevolent describes someone or something having or showing a desire to cause harm to another person.
Trees that size are like whales, sort of benevolent in their huge bulk … Sebastian Junger, This Old House, March/April 1998Grandfather sometimes turned on us like a rigged trap, and of course the benevolent gaze of the sage became the glare of the patriarch. Darryl Pinckney, High Cotton, 1992A Southern writer is allowed his eccentricities. The prevailing attitude is a kind of benevolent neglect. Walker Percy, "Why I Live Where I Live,"1980, in Signposts in a Strange Land, 1991They tore out the windows of the club's simple storefront and bricked them over and left two much smaller windows … so that the look of the club changed from that of a benevolent neighborhood organization to that of a paramilitary one. "The Talk of the Town,"New Yorker, 26 Feb. 1990 a gift from a benevolent donor He belonged to several benevolent societies and charitable organizations. See More
Recent Examples on the WebPropaganda images of Mao Zedong (who was also a Warhol subject between 1972 and 1973) were much disseminated during his lifetime, but he was always made to look the same: the benevolent founding father of the Chinese nation. Nick Glass, CNN, 10 Sep. 2022 Condon, wry and warm but no twinkly, benevolent cypher, makes Siobhan the one character who can credibly empathize with both men. Guy Lodge, Variety, 5 Sep. 2022 Their benevolent offering was an all-inclusive cruise around the Greek islands on a luxury liner containing no fewer than nine fabulous restaurants.San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Sep. 2022 In the wake of these allegations, Cal-Poly severed ties with QL+, Monett resigned, and an interim executive director claimed that the charity’s benevolent mission would continue unfazed. Jasper Craven, The New Republic, 29 Aug. 2022 Saturated in propaganda and the idea that Russia remains a benevolent force, many Russians would be shocked by the idea that Moscow is no better than the Portuguese in Angola or the Spanish in Mexico. Casey Michel, WSJ, 9 Aug. 2022 Modern bandwidths swarm with stimuli; in this context, culture that aspires to deflect attention can scan as wholesome, benevolent, even virtuous. Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 14 July 2022 As a reminder, Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) killed a somewhat benevolent but out-of-their-mind Kang (Jonathan Majors) variant. Chris Smith, BGR, 10 Aug. 2022 At the heart of the play are machinations and scheming, of both the benevolent and malevolent sort, designed to steer or derail the course of love. Don Aucoin, BostonGlobe.com, 28 July 2022 See More
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Latin benevolent-, benevolens, from bene + volent-, volens, present participle of velle to wish — more at will