indifference

English

Etymology

From Middle French indifférence, from Late Latin indifferentia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈdɪf.ɹəns/, /ɪnˈdɪf.ə.ɹəns/

• Audio (US)

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• Hyphenation: in‧dif‧fer‧ence

Noun

indifference (countable and uncountable, plural indifferences)

1. The state of being indifferent.

   Synonym: unconcern

   • 1838 (date written), L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter IX, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. , volume I, London: Henry Colburn, , published 1842, →OCLC, page 115:

     "I do not care for them; I would not have them now," cried Lady Penrhyn; "it is only your affection I care for. Do not suppose, for a moment, that I wish for the tables when you do not: oh, no! my only concern was for your indifference. But I am content if you tell me I was mistaken."

2. Unbiased impartiality.
3. Unemotional apathy.

   His daughter's indifference towards the sexist group made him wonder if she was even human.

4. A lack of enthusiasm.
5. Unconcerned nonchalance.
   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     I liked the man for his own sake, and even had he promised to turn out a celebrity it would have had no weight with me. I look upon notoriety with the same indifference as on the buttons on a man's shirt-front, or the crest on his note-paper.

6. (philosophy) Self-identity defined through the negation of difference, non-difference.
   • 1801, FWJ Schelling, The Philosophical Rupture between Fichte and Schelling, page 145:

     "I call reason absolute reason, or reason insofar as it is conceived as the total indifference of the subjective and objective."

Derived terms

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