apathetic

Etymology

It is formed from English apathy + -ic, on the model of pathetic.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Merriam-Webster takes the ending as -etic, as in pathetic.^[7][8] The noun apathy is from French apathie, from Latin apathīa, from Ancient Greek ἀπάθεια (apátheia, “freedom from suffering, want of feeling”), from ἀπαθής (apathḗs, “without feeling”),^[3][2][4] formed from ἀ- (a-, “without”) and πάθος (páthos, “suffering, emotion”).^[3][2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Characterized by apathy; insensible to suffering or to emotion, indifferent: 1744, in Harris's Happiness, spelled apathetick.^[3][2][7] Dictionary.com dates it to 1735–45.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective arose after apathy itself had changed: the noun first meant a desirable freedom from suffering or passion, and by 1733 had come to mean indolence of mind, an indifference to what should stir one.^[2] Both senses show in the adjective, which the OED defines as insensible to emotion and indifferent to what ought to move the feelings or excite attention.^[3] Modern dictionaries separate the lack of feeling from the lack of interest or concern.^[7][10]

Timeline

• 1744 – characterized by apathy; unfeeling, indifferent.^[3][2][7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Showing little or no interest or concern; indifferent: Apathetic voters stayed at home on election day.^[7][10][11]
2. Showing little or no feeling or emotion; impassive or spiritless.^[7][10][11]

Word family

• apathetically

Related words

• pathetic
• apathy
• pathos
• sympathetic

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins