• indifferent •
Pronunciation: in-dif-(ê)-rênt • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: 1. Apathetic, having no interest or feeling one way or another. 2. Not mattering one way or another. 3. Impartial, unbiased, neutral, unprejudiced. 4. Moderate, average, fair to middling, neither too much nor too little, good nor bad.
Notes: Here is a word that should be the antonym of different and mean "same". But it took off on its own in the 15th century and became what it wanted to be. The adverb is indifferently and the noun, indifference. An indifferentist is someone who practices indifference in any sense, but indifferentism refers to the absence of interest in religious matters or the belief that all religions are of equal value.
In Play: The first sense of this word is used in sentences like this: "The universe is indifferent to the accomplishments of the puny creatures we are." The fourth, in sentences like this: "Although Petra enjoyed the dinner very much, she found the wine indifferent."
Word History: Today's Good Word is obviously borrowed from Latin indifferen(t)s, the negated present participle of differre "to set apart". Differre is made up of di(s)- "(away) from" + ferre "to bear, carry". Ferre came from PIE bher-/bhor- "to bear, carry", source also of the English verb (to) bear and bairn "baby, child", but also Sanskrit bharati "carries, brings", Greek ferein "to bear", Armenian berem "to take", Russian brat' "to take" (beru "I take") and beremennaya "pregnant", Latin Lucifer, originally "light-bearer", Albanian mbart "to carry", Irish and Scotts Gaelic beir "to bear, take, bring", Welsh brawd "judgement", Cornish bres "womb", the German suffix -bar "bearing, having", as in fruchtbar "fruitful", Swedish bära "to bear, wear", Norwegian bære "to carry, bear", and Latvian bērns "child".
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