The word for today is…

spontaneous (adj) – 1. Happening or arising without apparent external cause; self-generated.

  1. Arising from a natural inclination or impulse and not from forethought or prompting.
  2. Unconstrained and unstudied in manner or behaviour.
  3. Growing without cultivation or human labour.

Source : The Free Dictionary

Etymology : When English philosopher Thomas Hobbes penned his 1656 The Questions Concerning Liberty, Necessity, and Chance he included the following: “all voluntary actions … are called also spontaneous, and said to be done by man’s own accord.” Hobbes was writing in English, but he knew Latin perfectly well too, including the source of spontaneous; the word comes, via Late Latin spontaneus, from the Latin sponte, meaning “of one’s free will, voluntarily.” In modern use, the word spontaneous is frequently heard in more mundane settings, where it often describes what is done or said without a lot of thought or planning.

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Peter is a fourth-generation New Zealander, with his mother's and father's folks having arrived in New Zealand in the 1870s. He lives in Lower Hutt with his wife, some cats and assorted computers. His...