different between insensitive vs sympathetic

English

Etymology

in- +? sensitive

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?n?s?ns?t?v/

Adjective

insensitive (comparative more insensitive, superlative most insensitive)

1. Expressing or feeling little or no concern, care, compassion, or consideration for the feelings, emotions, sentiments, or concerns of other people; inconsiderate or incompassionate
2. Not expressing normal physical feeling;
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula

     It is something like the way dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact.

3. Not expressing normal emotional feelings; cold; tactless; undiplomatic
   • 1895, Grant Allen, The British Barbarians

     Somehow, when Bertram Ingledew let it once be felt he did not wish to be questioned on any particular point, even women managed to restrain their curiosity: and he would have been either a very bold or a very insensitive man who would have ventured to continue questioning him any further.

   • 1994, Jann Arden, "Insensitive" (song)

     Oh I really should have known by the time you drove me home, / By the vagueness in your eyes, your casual good-byes, / By the chill in your embrace and the expression on your face, / That told me you might have some advice to give / On how to be insensitive.

Synonyms

• unaffected
• unsensitive

Antonyms

• sensitive

Derived terms

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• sympathetick (obsolete)
• sympathetical

Etymology

Mid 17th century in the sense “relating to an affinity or paranormal influence”, from sympathy +? -etic (“pertaining to”), on the pattern of pathetic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?m.p????t.?k/
• Rhymes: -?t?k

Adjective

sympathetic (comparative more sympathetic, superlative most sympathetic)

1. Of, related to, feeling, showing, or characterized by sympathy.

   Antonym: unsympathetic

   1. Showing approval of or favor towards an idea or action.

      Synonym: approving

2. (of a person) Attracting the liking of others.
   1. (construction) Designed in a sensitive or appropriate way.
3. (relational) Relating to, producing, or denoting an effect which arises through an affinity, interdependence, or mutual association.
   1. (of magic) A supernatural connection or power resulting from two items having the same form or some other correspondence.
   2. (sound) Relating to musical tones produced by sympathetic vibration or to strings so tuned as to sound by sympathetic vibration.
4. (neuroanatomy, neurology, relational) Relating to or denoting the part of the autonomic nervous system consisting of nerves arising from ganglia near the middle part of the spinal cord, supplying the internal organs, blood vessels, and glands, and balancing the action of the parasympathetic nerves.

   Antonym: parasympathetic

Derived terms

Related terms

• sympathico-

Translations

References

• “sympathetic”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “sympathetic”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).