Ap"a*thy (#), n.; pl. Apathies (#). [L. apathia, Gr. ; priv. + , fr. , , 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 1913.