Word of the Day

: April 29, 2009

apathy

noun AP-uh-thee

What It Means

1 : lack of feeling or emotion : impassiveness

2 : lack of interest or concern : indifference

apathy in Context

Every electoral season, editorials in the local newspaper complain about voter apathy and cynicism.

Did You Know?

There's no reason to be uncaring about the origins of "apathy" -- though there is a clue to the word's beginnings in that sentence. "Apathy" was borrowed into English in the late 16th century from Greek "apatheia," which itself comes from the adjective "apathēs," meaning "without feeling." "Apathēs," in turn, was formed by combining the negating prefix "a-" with "pathos," meaning "emotion." Incidentally, if you've guessed that "pathos" is the source of the identically spelled noun in English (meaning either "an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion" or "an emotion of sympathetic pity"), you are correct. "Pathos" also gave us such words as "antipathy," "empathy," "sympathy," "pathetic," and even the archaic word "pathematic" ("emotional").