#60885
03/12/2002 5:01 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
What's the difference between the words 'dispirited' and 'apathetic', please?
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#60886
03/12/2002 5:04 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Dispirited -- Characterized by loss of interest
Apathetic -- Characterized by lack of interest
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#60887
03/12/2002 5:11 PM
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Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 4,189 |
But if I had a lack of interest in being dispirited, I would be all bubbly and effervescent...kind of like Jackie! 
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#60888
03/12/2002 5:44 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
I think dispirited means more discouraged, disheartened, depressed. Apathetic means that you just don't care. Becoming dispirited is generally done to you by something or someone - the death of someone close will make you dispirited. Apathy is a state of mind brought about by a consideration of something at the end of which you decide that you don't have an opinion, or something about which you just don't know enough to have an opinion and about which you don't care enough to inform yourself well enough to form one. Is that clear?  Oh I dunno, somehow I just can't be bothered! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#60889
03/12/2002 6:08 PM
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
To me, "dispirited" means depressed, "apathetic" means having no feelings,numb.
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#60890
03/13/2002 1:35 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,027 |
To ad my 2-pence: both are symptoms of depression: Being dispirited leads to lack of action - apathetic leads to lack of reaction (from lack of sensation).
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#60891
03/13/2002 3:05 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Surely one can be apathetic without being depressed? E.g., most young people in UK don't bother to vote in elections (therefore, are apathetic) but it is because they don't feel that their input is going to make any difference to the political process (they could be right, at that  ) but they don't feel unhappy about it - they just don't care about it.
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#60892
03/13/2002 6:39 PM
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Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
Dear Ruby Sea,
A dispirited person is definitely depressed--feeling low, aching, miserable, on the point of tears, or wanting to crawl into a hole and die.
I agree with you that the apathetic person is in another place entirely. Feeling nothing. Perhaps once dispirited, but now feeling nothing. Not caring. Neither a little happy--nor a little sad. Not even neutral, which is actually a pretty decent mental state because it allows minute fluctuations of pain and pleasure.
But the poor apathetic feels nothing. At least with a dispirited person there's hope for movement toward a better emotional level. But with the apathetic person, you've got to get in there and make something go. It's like charging a dead engine! Apathy is a lot closer to death than dispiritedness....if dispiritedness is a word. Calling all tswums!!! Calling all tswums!!!
Bliss remorse,
Woewind
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#60893
03/13/2002 6:55 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Apathy, as the Rhube has commented, is a state of not caring, total indifference, inability to give a damn, about some topic. You can be apathetic about anything, really. I personally couldn't care less who the next Archbishop of Canterbury is; if they've appointed one I haven't heard and I don't care. He (or, I guess, potentially, she) could have six legs, polka dots and practice satanism on Saturday afternoons for all I care). However, apathy about one thing does not necessarily translate into a general apathy about everything. I passionately care about a number of pressing and important issues. "Alot" and "Alright" are two of them! I think someone who is apathetic about everything is best described as alienated or socially disenfranchised.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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#60894
03/13/2002 7:05 PM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
dear wordlessness(not), ‘I do not know’..said joe bfstplk dispiritedly, 'A defatigation and dispiritedness accompanies my depression.' http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
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#60895
03/13/2002 9:42 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
Dispitited means you've run out of liquor. You then become a pathetic creature. You just crammed the "a" and the "p" too close together!
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