The notion of impassive , which comes from the Latin word impassibĭlis , refers to someone who remains unalterable, immutable or inflexible . This adjective is used to describe the subject who seems to have no emotions or feelings .
For example: “The government cannot remain impassive in the face of the worsening economic and social crisis that the country is going through,” “The poverty that I observed while touring the national territory did not leave me indifferent, so I decided to create a civil association to help the most needy” , “The deputy remained impassive in the face of the crowd's insults” .
Whoever appears impassive does not show any type of shock or confusion . This does not mean that the person has not been moved or that they are not going through a moment of nervousness or agitation, but that they simply do not express their state.
Suppose that a soccer player crosses paths on the street with supporters of a rival team, who begin to verbally attack him. Despite the insults and the violent situation, the athlete continues walking without responding or looking at his attackers. That is why it can be said that the footballer remained impassive.
Take the case of a young woman who, after watching a documentary and learning about how the food industry works, decides to become vegan . The girl explained the decision to her family and friends saying that she cannot remain indifferent to the suffering that animals suffer before becoming food for humans. Ethical reasons, therefore, led her to modify her habits and not remain undaunted in the face of a situation that she considers unfair and negative.
Although the term impassive is not exclusive to literature or written language, it is not very common in everyday speech. For this reason, to understand its meaning and semantic scope in greater depth, it is advisable to look for a series of synonyms. Dictionaries offer us the following list, which includes some of the words used in the previous paragraphs: undaunted, imperturbable, indifferent, undaunted, circumspect, insensitive, serene, inexpressive, apathetic, cold, serious, calm, tranquil, phlegmatic and passive .
Among the synonyms just exposed, we note that not all of them serve to replace the word impassive in any situation. However, some give us more nuances about its meaning and the characteristics that highlight a person that we may consider "impassive" at a given moment. In the first three examples of this article, we can take advantage of some of the synonyms and this would give us the following results: "The government cannot remain calm " , "it did not leave me indifferent " and "The deputy remained calm " . It is worth mentioning that there are many more possibilities.
By definition, an impassive person does not have the capacity to feel or suffer, and is imperturbable and indifferent. No matter how brief this description may seem, it gives rise to many possibilities, which we must evaluate depending on the case and the features that we wish to exhibit or highlight. Indifference seems to be the aspect that stands out most frequently when using the term impassive , since we generally try to explain the lack of action with the lack of interest; However, as mentioned above, this is not always the case.
Regarding antonyms, the most common are expressive and sensitive . As is often the case, dictionaries give us very few antonyms compared to the long list of synonyms. In this case, if we return to the previous examples and observe them from the opposite point of view, we may notice that these two words are not enough to describe them: probably the government should feel empathy for the victims of the crisis, as well as the person who decides create a civil association was carried away by his compassion and the ruler was not susceptible to insults.