antipathy

Definition

Often followed by against, between, for, or to: a (deep) feeling of dislike or repugnance, normally towards a person and less often towards a thing, often without any conscious reasoning; aversion, distaste, hostility; (countable) an instance of this.

Etymology

PIE word *h₂énti Borrowed from Middle French antipathie (“deep dislike; object of dislike; incompatibility between things”) (modern French antipathie (“dislike, antipathy”)), and from its etymon Latin antipathīa (“counteraction; natural aversion, antipathy”), from Ancient Greek ἀντῐπάθειᾰ (antĭpátheiă, “suffering instead”), Koine Greek ἀντῐπάθειᾰ (antĭpátheiă, “contrary affection; contrast; counteraction; opposition”), from ἀντῐπᾰθής (antĭpăthḗs, “(adjective) felt mutually; in return for suffering; (noun) remedy for suffering”) (from ἀντι- (anti-, prefix meaning ‘against’) + πᾰ́θος (pắthos, “death; disaster; misfortune; pain; suffering; strong feeling, emotion, passion, pathos”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind; a bond”) or *kʷendʰ- (“to endure; to suffer”)) + -ης (-ēs, suffix forming third-declension adjectives)) + -ειᾰ (-eiă, suffix forming feminine adjectives and nouns).

Example Sentences

• "For of our Alphabet the .P. doth omenouſly begin / Of theſe this much diſtaſted Ranck, […] vvere other Rankes not free / Of Publique-vveales Antipathie, prooling and peruerſe, P."
• "A Sect, vvhoſe chief Devotion lies / In odde perverſe Antipathies; / In falling out vvith that or this, / And finding ſomevvhat ſtill amiſs: […]"
• "[A] man may cry out against ſin, of policy; but he cannot abhor it, but by virtue of a godly antipathy againſt it: I have heard many cry out againſt ſin in the Pulpit, vvho yet can abide it vvell enough in the heart, and houſe, and converſation."

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