ἀπάθεια

Pronunciation

• IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /a.pá.tʰeː.a/^[1]
• IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /aˈpa.θi.a/^[1]
• IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /aˈpa.θi.a/^[1]

Forms

ἀπᾰ́θεια (apátheia) f (genitive ἀπᾰθείᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is derived from ἀπαθής (apathḗs, “not suffering, without feeling”) with the abstract suffix -ια (-ia).^[1][2] Ἀπαθής is formed from the privative prefix and the root of πάθος (páthos, “experience, suffering”).^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Aristotle uses it of things, for their capacity not to be affected or changed, and of persons, for insensibility.^[3][2][4]

Semantic evolution

In Aristotle the virtues were sometimes defined as apatheiai, freedom from passions, and he also uses the word in a bad sense, for indifference to disgrace.^[4][3] The Platonic Definitions describe it as the state in which we do not fall into passions.^[4] For the Stoics it was the ideal of the wise man, freedom from emotion, and Dionysius the Stoic, Epictetus, Philo and Plutarch use it so; some Stoics spelled it ἀπαθία.^[3][4][2] Theophrastus uses it for insensibility to harm, and Plutarch for freedom from suffering.^[3][2]

Latin borrowed it as apathīa.^[1] Modern Greek απάθεια (apátheia) is indifference, a lack of emotion or reaction.^[5]

Timeline

• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it for impassibility and insensibility.^[3][4]
• 4th–3rd century BC – Theophrastus uses it for insensibility to evils.^[3][4]
• 3rd century BC – Dionysius the Stoic writes on it.^[4]
• 1st–2nd century AD – Epictetus and Plutarch use it for Stoic freedom from emotion.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Impassibility, the capacity not to be affected or changed.^[2][3]
2. Insensibility; indifference, in a bad sense.^[3][2]
3. (Stoicism) Freedom from emotion, dispassionateness.^[3][2]
4. Freedom from suffering or injury.^[2][3]

Related words

• ἀπαθής (apathḗs)
• πάθος (páthos)
• Latin apathia
• English apathy

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
5. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki