Mind & EmotionGreek → English
Apathy
/ˈæpəθi/noun
A lack of interest, concern or emotion.
The Greek roots
ἀ-
a-
without
πάθος
páthos
feeling, passion
Literally: “without feeling”
The story of the word
For the Stoics ἀπάθεια was the aim of a well-lived life, freedom from the passions that shove a person around, and the word was praise. English borrowed it around 1600 still fairly neutral. By the 1730s it had become an accusation, and Christian writers helped the turn, since indifference to other people's suffering was never going to count as a virtue.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- c. 1600
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
pathossympathyempathypathologypathetic
In a sentence
Turnout was low, and apathy got most of the blame.
What worried the doctor was not the sadness but the apathy.