benevolence

Meaning

Noun

• Disposition to do good.
• Charitable kindness.
• An altruistic gift or act.
• A kind of forced loan or contribution levied by kings without legal authority, first so called under Edward IV in 1473.

Related

Opposite words

• malevolence

Origin

• 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 + volentia, form of volēns, form of volō, components cognate to English benefit and voluntary, more distantly will (via Proto-Indo-European).