VOLUNTEER

I. noun Etymology: obsolete French voluntaire (now volontaire), from voluntaire, adjective, voluntary, from Old French, from Latin voluntarius Date: circa 1600 a person who voluntarily undertakes or expresses a willingness to undertake a service: as, one who enters into military service voluntarily, b. one who renders a service or takes part in a transaction while having no legal concern or interest, one who receives a conveyance or transfer of property without giving valuable consideration, a ~ plant, a member of a quasi-military religious and philanthropic organization founded in 1896 by Commander and Mrs. Ballington Booth, II. adjective Date: 1649 being, consisting of, or engaged in by ~s , growing spontaneously without direct human control or supervision especially from seeds lost from a previous crop , III. verb Date: circa 1755 intransitive verb to offer oneself as a ~ , transitive verb to offer or bestow voluntarily