antipathy

noun

Etymology: PIE word *h₂énti Borrowed from Middle French antipathie (“deep dislike; object of dislike; incompatibility between things”) (modern French antipathie (“dislike, antipathy”)), and from its etymon Latin antipathīa (“counteraction; natural aversion, antipathy”), from Ancient Greek ἀντῐπάθειᾰ (antĭpátheiă, “suffering instead”), Koine Greek ἀντῐπάθειᾰ (antĭpátheiă, “contrary affection; contrast; counteraction; opposition”), from ἀντῐπᾰθής (antĭpăthḗs, “(adjective) felt mutually; in return for suffering; (noun) remedy for suffering”) (from ἀντι- (anti-, prefix meaning ‘against’) + πᾰ́θος (pắthos, “death; disaster; misfortune; pain; suffering; strong feeling, emotion, passion, pathos”) (further etymology uncertain, possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰendʰ- (“to bind; a bond”) or *kʷendʰ- (“to endure; to suffer”)) + -ης (-ēs, suffix forming third-declension adjectives)) + -ειᾰ (-eiă, suffix forming feminine adjectives and nouns).

1. Often followed by against, between, for, or to: a (deep) feeling of dislike or repugnance, normally towards a person and less often towards a thing, often without any conscious reasoning; aversion, distaste, hostility; (countable) an instance of this.

   “For of our Alphabet the .P. doth omenouſly begin / Of theſe this much diſtaſted Ranck, […] vvere other Rankes not free / Of Publique-vveales Antipathie, prooling and peruerſe, P.”

   “A Sect, vvhoſe chief Devotion lies / In odde perverſe Antipathies; / In falling out vvith that or this, / And finding ſomevvhat ſtill amiſs: […]”

2. Natural contrariety or incompatibility between things, as a result of which they negatively affect or oppose each other; (countable) an instance of this.

   “Oil and water have antipathy.”

   “[…] Tangible Bodies haue an Antipathy vvith Aire; And if they finde any Liquid Body, that is more denſe, neere them, they vvill dravv it: And after they haue dravvne it, they vvill condenſe it more and in effect incorporate it; For vvee ſee that a Spunge, or vvooll, or Sugar, or a vvoollen Cloth, being put but in part, in vvater, or vvine, vvill dravv the Liquor higher, and beyond the place, vvhere the vvater or vvine commeth.”

3. A person or thing that one has a (deep) feeling of dislike or repugnance towards; an anathema, a bête noire, a bugbear.

   “Let him be to thee, an Antipathy, / A thing thy nature ſvveates at, and turnes backvvard: […]”

   “Dr. Slicer is decidedly one of my antipathies and I shall not go to ride with him. Why has he taken to coming here?”

4. A person or thing that has a (deep) feeling of dislike or repugnance towards another person or thing; a hater.

   “And therefore having firſt vvith horror vveigh'd / VVhat tis to die, and to die yong, to part vvith / All pleaſures, and delights: laſtly, to goe / VVhere all Antipathies to comfort dvvell / Furies behind, about thee, and before thee, / […] let deſpayre / Preuent the hangmans ſvvord, and on this ſcaffold / Make thy firſt entrance into Hell.”

5. The quality of being antipathetic: not easily united by grafting.