English

Alternative forms

• empassionate (obsolete)

Adjective

impassionate ‎(comparative more impassionate, superlative most impassionate)

1. Filled with passion; impassioned.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.9:

     The Briton Prince was sore empassionate, / And woxe inclined much unto her part […].

   • 1813, J. Payne Collier, quoting Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and Other English Poets, Kessinger Publishing, published 2005, ISBN 9781417971787, III. Lectures on Shakspere and Milton, At Bristol, page 459:

     It is essential, as in Milton, that poetry be simple, sensuous, and impassionate:—simple that it may appeal to the elements and the primary laws of our nature; sensuous, since it is only by sensuous images that we can elicit truth at a flash; impassionate since images must be vivid, in order to move our passions and awake our affections.

   • 1817 July, Joseph Deniie, John Elihu Hall, “The Adversaria”, in The Port Folio for 1817, volume 4, number 1, Harrison Hall, page 40:

     “Well sir,” exclaimed a lady, the vehement and impassionate partizan of Wilkes, int he day of his glory, and during the broad blaze of his patriotism,—“well sir! and will you dare deny, the Mr. Wikles is a great man, and an eloquent men?”

   • 1900, George P. Hott, Christ, the Teacher, U. B. Publishing House, page 81:

     Young ministers, deeply impressed and longing to pour out the burning, impassionate zeal of their own souls, are apt to abuse the use of this figure.

   • 1989, Pater A Chambers, Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain: A Handbook fo Spiritual Counsel, Paulist Press, translation of Symvouleftikon Encherirdion by Nicodemos the Hagiorite, ISBN 9780809130382, Chapter Two: Concerning the Mind, page 76:

     The first and main reason is the fact that after the disobedience of Adam, his body received the whole of its existence and constitutions from physical pleasure that is impassionate and irrational.

   • 1990, David W. Plath, “Fieldnotes, Field Notes, and the Conferring of Note”, in Roger Sanjeck, editor, Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology, Cornell University Press, ISBN 9780801497261, page 384:

     And then what about Margaret Mead? IS it just coincidence that the most impassionate ethnographic disputes of the decade are swirling around the figure of her who was first mother of Media Anthropology?

2. Lacking passion; dispassionate.
   • 1857, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, book 1, chapter 13

     Various old ladies in the neighbourhood spoke of him as The Last of the Patriarchs. So grey, so slow, so quiet, so impassionate, so very bumpy in the head, Patriarch was the word for him.

   • 1869, Leo Wiener, War and Peace, volume 2, BiblioBazaar, translation of Война и мир by Leo Tolstoy, published 1957, ISBN 9781110347520, page 77:

     “Try to serve well and to show yourself worthy,” he added, turning sternly to Borís. “I am glad— Are you here on leave?” he recited, in his impassionate voice.

   • 2005, Alexander T. Newport, The Vomit Factory (Life Is Fake: Death Is Good), Lulu.com, ISBN 9781411640313, Chapter 15: Letter to Veronica, pages 96-97:

     From a scholarly standpoint, the book was poorly written: Scholarly works demand keen attention to logical consistency while maintaining an impersonal, impassionate voice; and while the Course certainly lack humour, it is anything but impassionate, and far from being logically consistent.

Synonyms

• (lacking passion): dispassionate
• (filled with passion): impassioned, passionate

Translations

Verb

impassionate ‎(third-person singular simple present impassionates, present participle impassionating, simple past and past participle impassionated)

1. (transitive) To affect powerfully; to arouse the passions of.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dr. H. More to this entry?)