acedia

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“
The ancient word acedia, which in Greek simply means the absence or lack of care, has proved anything but simple when it comes to finding adequate expression in English.

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Definitions (5)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. noun Spiritual torpor and apathy; ennui.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (48)

  • Honeycrisp apples (yum!) and acedia (how did any aspect of spiritual theology end up on the "in" list?). —  Wheat & Weeds
  • They're manifest in the acedia that Gene McCarthy warned about 40 years ago, and in the anomie of today's young people that Michael Adams alerted us to three years ago. or the past 40 years, I've led something of a double life. —  How to Save the World
  • Calling it the antidote to the acedia - spiritual lassitude or indifference - that plagues our times, Ostermann develops a rich picture of Sabbath as God's provision for the fullest possible formation of the human person. —  Catholic Online > Daily Readings
  • The ancient word acedia, which in Greek simply means the absence or lack of care, has proved anything but simple when it comes to finding adequate expression in English. —  The Wine Dark Sea
  • One reader objected that it wasn't a memoir, the other that it wasn't a scholarly study of acedia. —  The Wine Dark Sea
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This word has been looked up 135 times.

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Late Latin, from Greek akēdeia, indifference : a-, a-; see a-1 + kēdos, care.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. New Latin, from Greek ἀκηδία, collateral form of ἀκήδεια, indifference, heedlessness, in ecclesiastical use ‘sloth,’ from ἀκηδής, indifferent, heedless, from ἀ- privative + κη̄δος, care, distress, κήδεσθαι, be troubled or distressed; in Middle Latin corrupted to accidia, later Middle English accidie, q. v.
  2. Cuban use of Spanish acedia, a flounder.
 

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/ɑsəˈdiɑ/
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