impassivity

impassivity

English

Etymology

Etymology tree
English impassive
Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂
Proto-Indo-European *-ts
Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts
Latin -itāsder.
Old French -itebor.
Middle English -ite
English -ity
English impassivity

    From impassive + -ity.

    Noun

    impassivity (usually uncountable, plural impassivities)

    1. The state of being impassive.
      • 1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 10:
        He wore gold-rimmed pince-nez, and had a curious impassivity of feature. It struck me that he might look natural on a stage, but was strangely out of place in real life.
      • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 37:
        [T]hey were baffled by tears in moustached sixth-formers, by walls of impassivity in the Lower School, by silent conspiracies which nullified the rules.
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