apathy - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From French apathie, from Latin apathīa, from Ancient Greek ἀπάθεια (apátheia, “impassibility”, “insensibility”, “freedom from emotion”), from ἀπαθής (apathḗs, “not suffering or having suffered”, “without experience of”), from ἀ- (a-, “not”) + πάθος (páthos, “anything that befalls one”, “incident”, “emotion”, “passion”). Doublet of apatheia, which was borrowed directly from Ancient Greek.

apathy (usually uncountable, plural apathies)

  1. Lack of emotion or motivation; lack of interest or enthusiasm towards something; disinterest (in something).
    Synonyms: indifference, neutrality, unconcern
    Antonyms: concern, sympathy, interest, care
    • 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 2, in Frankenstein‎[1], archived from the original on 3 April 2012:
      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.

lack of emotion or motivation