Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Apathy
Ap′a-thy
,Noun.
pl.
Apathies
. [L.
apathia
, Gr. [GREEK]; ἀ
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.
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.