Voluntaryist

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A proponent of the belief that all interactions should happen freely without imposition or force while emphasizing the necessity of mutual consent in all agreements
2. An individual who champions the idea that social arrangements ought to arise from voluntary cooperation instead of coercive measures, focusing on consent as a foundation
3. A person who advocates for a social system based on voluntary agreements rather than compulsion, highlighting the importance of consensual interactions in all aspects of life

Etymology: "Voluntaryist" is built from "voluntary" plus the suffix "-ist", which marks a person who holds to or practises a particular principle. The formation is transparent: a voluntaryist is someone who believes that human affairs, and especially those that others might be forced into, should rest on voluntary consent rather than compulsion. The suffix "-ist" has been attached to English nouns and adjectives since Greek times, as in "socialist" or "pianist," so the word's shape tells you most of its story. The base word "voluntary" comes from Latin "voluntarius," meaning acting of one's own free will, and it reached English through Old French "volontaire." The adjective had long described free action, such as volunteers who serve without compulsion, before the idea was pushed into the political and religious sphere. Its earlier religious use, where "voluntary" described gifts and church support freely given rather than levied by law, is the sense the modern political meaning grew from.