voie

Where it comes from

Origin disputed. It is either from a Vulgar Latin root *volia, remodeled from Latin volō or Old Church Slavonic волꙗ (volja), Proto-Slavic *voľà, both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European *welh₁- (“to choose; to want”). It has been argued that the Latin etymology for voie (from a root *volia for volō on the basis of the disappearance of the intervocalic l in some other words like muiere, foaie, găină, pai) is quite improbable because the result would probably have normally been *voaie, as with foaie, from Latin folia. The presence of the related Slavic loanword nevoie also makes this less plausible, and that the existence of Italian voglia with a similar meaning is also most likely a coincidence.

However, there are other cases where words can be of two originally different origins with similar meanings and sound and coincide to form one word after a while through confusion of the two. Also, note that Old Church Slavonic волꙗ (volja) entered Slavic vocabulary with the translation of Bible in 9th century, based on the language spoken in Macedonia of the presumptive Slavic speakers. It is highly likely that these speakers adopted a Vulgar Latin word to express this abstract meaning.

It has influenced variants of the verb vrea, from Latin volere (compare vroi, voi) due to similarity of sound and meaning, especially after the weak r is removed. Compare Italian voglia, Bulgarian воля (volja) and Serbo-Croatian volja. Compare also English volition of Latin origin, and German Wille, first attested only one century earlier than the Old Church Slavonic form.