Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Apathy \Ap"a*thy\, n.; pl. {Apathies}. [L. apathia, Gr. ?; 'a
   priv. + ?, fr. ?, ?, to suffer: cf. F. apathie. See
   {Pathos}.]
   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.

   Note: 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.