conatus
9.9
A short effort to do something, often in old writing
- noun
- /kəˈneɪtəs/
- Archaic
- The author's latest novel is a conatus to explore the complexities of human desire.
Examples
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His poem was a conatus, capturing the struggles faced in pursuing one’s dreams.
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In her speech, she described the conatus of the community to nurture artistic expression.
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The institution and society at large, most probably, take the teleological view of the implementation of this program, while our conatus would only allow a deontological perspective.
Academic text (2002)
Synonyms
Antonyms
How Effortful
Surface Forms
Etymology
Conatus comes from the Latin verb conari, which means 'to try', so it was used for an 'effort' or 'attempt'. That's why conatus can mean a single try or effort to do something.