equanimity

Etymology

It is borrowed from French équanimité,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin aequanimitās (“evenness of mind, calmness; goodwill, kindness”).^[4][5] The American Heritage Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary of English and Hoad derive the word directly from the Latin, without the French step.^[7][8][9] The Latin noun comes from the adjective aequanimis (“mild, kind, literally even-minded”),^[2][4][9] which Klein and the American Heritage Dictionary give as aequanimus,^[5][7] formed from aequus (“even, level, equal”) and animus (“mind, spirit”).^[2][4][7][3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged connects it with the Latin phrase for bearing something with an even mind, aequō animō ferre.^[10] The American Heritage Dictionary takes the second part back to Proto-Indo-European *anə-.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Fairness of judgement, impartiality: 1607, in R. Parker's Scholasticall Discourse against Antichrist.^[2][3][10] Etymonline gives the date as about 1600, and Dictionary.com as 1600–10.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

The first English sense, fairness in judging, was used until 1752.^[2] The modern sense is of a mind or temper not disturbed by elation, depression or strong feeling.^[2] Its date varies between sources: Etymonline has the 1610s, the Concise Barnhart 1616, and the OED and the full Barnhart take their first quotation from Pepys's diary, 8 March 1663.^{[4][12][2][3]} The Shorter Oxford dates it to the early 17th century, and adds the shade of resignation or acceptance of fate.^[13] Johnson (1755) defined it as "evenness of mind neither elated nor depressed".^[14] S. Butler's Hudibras (1663) has a one-off plural for seasons of calm.^[2] Merriam-Webster Unabridged also records a wider sense of right disposition or balance, as of the body's muscles after rest.^[10]

Timeline

• 1607 – fairness of judgement, impartiality (obsolete by 1752).^[2][3][10]
• 1663 – evenness of mind or temper, in Pepys's diary.^[2][3] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1610s, and the Concise Barnhart to 1616.^[4][12]
• 1663 – plural, seasons of calm, in Butler's Hudibras (a one-off use).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Calmness of mind or temper, especially under stress; composure: She heard the verdict with complete equanimity.^[15][10][2]
2. Right disposition or balance, as of the body's muscles.^[10]
3. (obsolete, 1607–1752) Fairness of judgement; impartiality, equity.^[2][10][13]

Word family

• equanimous

Related words

• equal
• animus
• animal

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins