impassionate

English

WOTD – 8 February 2015

Alternative forms

• empassionate (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (adjective) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpæʃənət/

  • Audio (General Australian):

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• (verb) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpæʃəneɪt/

Etymology 1

From Italian impassionato. By surface analysis, in- (“into”) +‎ passion +‎ -ate (adjective-forming suffix).

Adjective

impassionate (comparative more impassionate, superlative most impassionate)

1. Filled with passion; impassioned

   Synonyms: impassioned, passionate

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 46, page 309:

     The Briton Prince was ſore empaſſionate, / And woxe inclined much vnto her part, [...]

   • 1813, J. Payne Collier, quoting Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lectures and Notes on Shakspere and Other English Poets‎^[1], Kessinger Publishing, published 2005, →ISBN, III. Lectures on Shakspere and Milton, At Bristol, page 459:

     It is essential, as in Milton, that poetry be simple, sensuous, and impassionate:—simple that it may appeal to the elements and the primary laws of our nature; sensuous, since it is only by sensuous images that we can elicit truth at a flash; impassionate since images must be vivid, in order to move our passions and awake our affections.

   • 1817 July, Joseph Deniie, John Elihu Hall, “The Adversaria”, in The Port Folio for 1817‎^[2], volume 4, number 1, Harrison Hall, page 40:

     “Well sir,” exclaimed a lady, the vehement and impassionate partizan of Wilkes, in the day of his glory, and during the broad blaze of his patriotism,—“well sir! and will you dare deny, the Mr. Wikles is a great man, and an eloquent men?”

   • 1900, George P. Hott, Christ, the Teacher, U. B. Publishing House, page 81:

     Young ministers, deeply impressed and longing to pour out the burning, impassionate zeal of their own souls, are apt to abuse the use of this figure.

   • 1989 [1801], Pater A Chambers, Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain: A Handbook fo Spiritual Counsel‎^[3], Paulist Press, translation of Symvouleftikon Encherirdion by Nicodemos the Hagiorite, →ISBN, Chapter Two: Concerning the Mind, page 76:

     The first and main reason is the fact that after the disobedience of Adam, his body received the whole of its existence and constitutions from physical pleasure that is impassionate and irrational.

   • 1990, David W. Plath, “Fieldnotes, Field Notes, and the Conferring of Note”, in Roger Sanjeck, editor, Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology‎^[4], Cornell University Press, →ISBN, From Fieldnotes to Ethnography, page 384:

     And then what about Margaret Mead? IS it just coincidence that the most impassionate ethnographic disputes of the decade are swirling around the figure of her who was first mother of Media Anthropology?

Derived terms

• impassionately

Translations

impassioned — see impassioned

Etymology 2

From the above adjective, see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Equivalent to in- (“into”) +‎ passion +‎ -ate.

Verb

impassionate (third-person singular simple present impassionates, present participle impassionating, simple past and past participle impassionated)

1. (transitive) to affect powerfully; to arouse the passions of
   • 1662, Henry More, The Defence of the Moral Cabbala:

     our Saviour Christ was one while deeply impassionated with Sorrow, another while very strongly carried away with Žeal and Anger

Etymology 3

From im- (“not”) +‎ passionate.

Adjective

impassionate (comparative more impassionate, superlative most impassionate)

1. Lacking passion; dispassionate

   Synonym: dispassionate

   • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, “Patriarchal”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, →OCLC, book the first (Poverty), page 105:

     Various old ladies in the neighbourhood spoke of him as The Last of the Patriarchs. So grey, so slow, so quiet, so impassionate, so very bumpy in the head, Patriarch was the word for him.

   • 1869, Leo Wiener, War and Peace‎^[5], volume 2, BiblioBazaar, translation of Война и мир by Leo Tolstoy, published 1957, →ISBN, page 77:

     “Try to serve well and to show yourself worthy,” he added, turning sternly to Borís. “I am glad— Are you here on leave?” he recited, in his impassionate voice.

   • 2005, Alexander T. Newport, The Vomit Factory (Life Is Fake: Death Is Good)‎^[6], Lulu.com, →ISBN, Chapter 15: Letter to Veronica, pages 96–97:

     From a scholarly standpoint, the book was poorly written: Scholarly works demand keen attention to logical consistency while maintaining an impersonal, impassionate voice; and while the Course certainly lack humour, it is anything but impassionate, and far from being logically consistent.

Translations

dispassionate — see dispassionate