Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ANTIPATHY
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pronounce
ANTIPATHY:
Say it "an TIP uh thee."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
If we have sympathy for others, we feel for them: our feelings are aligned with them.
But if we have antipathy for others, we feel against them.
Antipathy looks like the opposite of sympathy because it pretty much is!
They both come from the Greek pathein: "to feel, to suffer." So does our stylish little word s__pati__, meaning "pleasant or likeable, getting along well together." Can you recall that one?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The word "antipathy" has roots that mean "feeling against."
Someone's antipathy for something is their feeling of strong dislike toward it.
In other words, if you have an antipathy to (or toward, or for) something, you really, really don't like it.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Noun, both the countable kind ("he feels an antipathy toward it") and the uncountable kind ("he feels antipathy toward it").
Other forms:
You can make it plural: "antipathies."
The adjective forms are all pretty rare: "antipathic," "antipathetic," and "antipathetical."
how to use it:
The word "antipathy" is a formal, serious one. It helps us be precise while avoiding the words "hate" and "hatred," which are often far too strong.
We usually stick it after a possessive pronoun: "his antipathy," "her antipathy," "their antipathy for this."
And we usually follow it with the word "to," "toward," or "for:" "her antipathy to marriage," "his antipathy toward religious indoctrination," "their antipathy for romantic comedy movies."
But you can leave those words out if your meaning is clear: "They aren't listening to him, and they're not even hiding their antipathy."
Notice how we use "antipathy" to label the kind of dislike that persists: the kind that lasts for a long time, or the kind that's a basic part of someone's personality: "his antipathy toward cats," "her antipathy for dogs," "their antipathy to bland vegetables;" "He's always felt an antipathy toward the wasting of food."
examples:
"I was quite religious, and the party's antipathy to religion put me off."
— Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, 1994
"Another barrier to using genetic-engineering methods to produce new varieties of tea is the public's antipathy to genetically modified food."
— Elie Dolgin, Nature, 6 February 2019
has this page helped you understand "antipathy"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "antipathy" without saying "enmity" or "animosity."
try it out:
Think of something you always avoid because you really, really don't like it. Fill in the blanks: "I've always felt an antipathy toward _____. (Here's why.) "
Example: "I've always felt an antipathy toward seafood. I imagine those little creatures wriggling around in the ocean, and it just makes me shudder."
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is "Faces & Feelings."
If the word you're studying were a facial expression, what would it look like? Maybe one of the seven universal facial expressions, the ones identified by the psychologist Paul Ekman.
In each issue, take a handful of words and assign each to an emotion it inspires. I'll list my answers at the bottom of each issue. Yours might be different from mine, which is okay--words, and emotions, are complex and personal! The goal here is just to interact with our words, to tie them more securely into memory by connecting them to emotion and to the face.
Try this set today. Match each face on the left to a term on the right:
pert
pestilential
petulant
quail
quintessential
quixotic
quotidian
review this word:
1. A near opposite of ANTIPATHY is
A. HEALTH.
B. FONDNESS.
C. PROSOCIAL BEHAVIOR.
2. Quoting a pamphlet from 1915, F. A. Kirkpatrick wrote, "Germans note and _____ a constant strain of antipathy to Germany, a wave of _____."
A. celebrate .. cultural zeal
B. deplore .. anti-German hate
C. satirize .. cartoon goblins in lederhosen
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
If we have sympathy for others, we feel for them: our feelings are aligned with them.
The word "antipathy" has roots that mean "feeling against."
Part of speech:
The word "antipathy" is a formal, serious one. It helps us be precise while avoiding the words "hate" and "hatred," which are often far too strong.
"I was quite religious, and the party's antipathy to religion put me off."
Explain the meaning of "antipathy" without saying "enmity" or "animosity."
Think of something you always avoid because you really, really don't like it. Fill in the blanks: "I've always felt an antipathy toward _____. (Here's why.) "
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
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