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Webster 1913 Edition


Apathy

Ap′a-thy

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Apathies
.
[L.
apathia
, Gr. [GREEK];
priv. + [GREEK], fr. [GREEK], [GREEK], 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.”
Macaulay.
A certain
apathy
or sluggishness in his nature which led him . . . to leave events to take their own course.
Prescott.
According to the Stoics,
apathy
meant the extinction of the passions by the ascendency of reason.
Fleming.
☞ In the first ages of the church, the Christians adopted the term to express a contempt of earthly concerns.
Syn. – Insensibility; unfeelingness; indifference; unconcern; stoicism; supineness; sluggishness.

Webster 1828 Edition


Apathy

AP'ATHY

,
Noun.
[Gr. passion.]
Want of feeling; an utter privation of passion, or insensibility to pain; applied either to the body or the mind. As applied to the mind, it is stoicism, a calmness of mind incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain or passion. In the first ages of the church, the christians adopted the term to express a contempt of earthly concerns.
Quietism is apathy disguised under the appearance of devotion.

Definition 2024


apathy

apathy

English

Noun

apathy (usually uncountable, plural apathies)

  1. Complete lack of emotion or motivation about a person, activity, or object; depression; lack of interest or enthusiasm; disinterest.
    • 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 2, in Frankenstein:
      I opened it with apathy; the theory which he attempts to demonstrate and the wonderful facts which he relates soon changed this feeling into enthusiasm.

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