apatetic

Pronounced: ap-uh-TET-ick, adj

Notes: Another interesting word that I’ve not heard before

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Yesterday’s word

The word robustious means

• strong and sturdy
• boisterous
• coarse or crude

First usage

This word came into English in the mid-1500s

Background / Comments

I knew the first meaning, because I could see, as you probably could also, “robust” in the word. I’m not really familiar with the other meanings. I suppose people who are strong and sturdy could be almost unknowingly be boisterous, rather like people in an apartment having a good time and not realizing how loud they might be getting until asked to tone it down. By even further extension, the strong are often thought to have little understanding or patience for social niceties, which could lead to the coarse/crude meaning. Our word hails from a Latin word robus (oak; strength).