apathy
NounOpen English WordNet
Noun (2)apathies
- an absence of emotion or enthusiasmType of feelingKinds emotionlessness, languor
- the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generallySynonyms: indifferencenumbnessspiritlessnessType of passivity, passiveness
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: L. apathia, Gr. …; ἀ priv. + …, fr. …, …, to suffer: cf. F. apathie. See Pathos.
Want of feeling; privation of passion, emotion, or excitement; dispassion; — applied either to the body or the mind. As applied to the mind, it is a calmness, indolence, or state of indifference, incapable of being ruffled or roused to active interest or exertion by pleasure, pain, or passion. “The apathy of despair.” Thomas Babington Macaulay
A certain apathy or sluggishness in his nature which led him... to leave events to take their own course.— William Hickling Prescott
According to the Stoics, apathy meant the extinction of the passions by the ascendency of reason.— Fleming, William
☞ In the first ages of the church, the Christians adopted the term to express a contempt of earthly concerns.
Synonyms: Insensibility; unfeelingness; indifference; unconcern; stoicism; supineness; sluggishness.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54