Emily Dickinson Lexicon

AP'A-THY, n. [Gr. α privative and παθος, passion.]

Want of feeling; an utter privation of passion, or insensibility to pain; applied either to the body or the mind. As applied to the mind, it is stoicism, a calmness of mind incapable of being ruffled by pleasure, pain, or passion. In the first ages of the Church, the Christians adopted the term to express a contempt of earthly concerns. Quietism is apathy disguised under the appearance of devotion. – Encyc.