antipathetic

American  

[an-ti-puh-thet-ik, an-tahy-] / ˌæn tɪ pəˈθɛt ɪk, ænˌtaɪ- /

Also antipathetical

adjective

1. opposed, averse, or contrary; having or showing antipathy.

   They were antipathetic to many of the proposed changes

2. causing or likely to cause antipathy.

   The new management was antipathetic to all of us.

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antipathetic British  

/ ænˌtɪpəˈθɛtɪk, ˌæntɪpə- /

adjective

1. (often foll by to) having or arousing a strong aversion

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Other Word Forms

• antipathetically adverb
• antipatheticalness noun

Etymology

Origin of antipathetic

1630–40; < Greek antipathḗs opposed in feeling ( anti- + -pathēs, adj. derivative of páthos pathos ), with -etic by analogy with pathetic

Explanation

If you have very negative, even hostile feelings about something, you're antipathetic toward it. If you're antipathetic to a particular basketball team, you'll root enthusiastically for whatever team they're playing against. The adjective antipathetic and noun antipathy come from the Greek antipathes, "an opposition of feeling," and its roots anti, "opposite," and pathein, "to suffer or feel." It's not quite full-on hatred, but an antipathetic feeling is a strong aversion or distaste. If your cousins are antipathetic to furry animals, you might want to reconsider inviting them to stay for two weeks — they won't enjoy hanging out with your four cats, three dogs, and affectionate chinchilla.

Example Sentences

Can people who make calculated use of the charge to manipulate other people's fears, genuinely feel threatened by anti-Semitism, or wholly antipathetic to it?

From Salon • Jan. 24, 2021

“I had never seen Jefferson Davis so as to know him. There are probably few men more antipathetic in all their views, opinions, convictions, purposes than he and I,” Greeley said later.

From Washington Post • Feb. 2, 2020

Like Lear, the role she came out of retirement to play in London two years ago, Jackson seems to have grown antipathetic to the finery that conceals the truth of unaccommodated man.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 26, 2018

It’s curious, though, that even the party that is relatively antipathetic toward business and capitalism describes such efforts using the language of advertising.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 19, 2015

But his own antipathetic personal attitude of intellect and of heart toward Christianity he would not in the least allow to disturb the urbanity and serenity of his tolerance for the most orthodox Christian writers.

From French Classics by Wilkinson, William Cleaver