apathy Meaning, Definition & Usage

noun an absence of emotion or enthusiasm
noun the trait of lacking enthusiasm for or interest in things generally
spiritlessness; indifference; numbness.

L. apathia, Gr. priv. + , fr. , , to suffer: cf. F. apathie. See Pathos.

plural Apathies

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.