apathy

apathy
 
noun|AP-uh-thee
 
What It Means
 
Apathy refers either to a lack of feeling or emotion, or to a lack of interest or concern.
 
// Though the girl’s expression communicated apathy, Gina knew her daughter was actually very pleased at having won the poetry prize.
 
// While the previous mayor’s administration responded to the community’s needs with little more than apathy, city hall under the new leadership is making real changes.
 


Definition

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apathy
noun
ap·;a·;thy ;a-p;-th;
Synonyms of apathy
1
: lack of feeling or emotion : impassiveness
drug abuse leading to apathy and depression
2
: lack of interest or concern : indifference
political apathy


Did you know?
How Apathy Differs From Impassivity and Indifference

Apathy, impassivity, and indifference all denote a lack of responsiveness to something that might normally excite interest or emotion. Apathy suggests a puzzling or deplorable inertness or lack of passion, as in “the problem of continued voter apathy.” Impassivity stresses the absence of any external sign of emotion in action or facial expression, as in “teachers frustrated by the impassivity of their students.” Indifference connotes a lack of interest in or concern about something, as in “the company’s apparent indifference to the needs of its employees.”


Did you know?
The Greek Origins of Apathy

There's no reason to be uncaring about the origins of apathy—though there is a clue to the word's beginnings in this sentence. Apathy was borrowed into English in the late 16th century from Greek apatheia, which itself comes from the adjective apath;s, meaning "without feeling." Apath;s, in turn, was formed by combining the negating prefix a- with pathos, meaning "emotion." Incidentally, if you've guessed that pathos is the source of the identically spelled noun in English (meaning either "an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion" or "an emotion of sympathetic pity"), you are correct. Pathos also gave us such words as antipathy, empathy, sympathy, pathetic, and even the archaic word pathematic ("emotional").

Synonyms
numbness
impassivity
impassiveness
emptiness
insensibility
phlegm