Category:Apathy

Ap"a*thy, n.; pl. Apathies. Etym: [L. apathia, Gr. apathie. See Pathos.]

Defn: 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.

Note: 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.