affectlessadj.
/ˈafɛktləs/, U.S. /ˈæˌfɛktləs/ Not involving an affective state or response (chiefly Psychology); (more generally) characterized by lack of feeling; emotionless, cold.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > absence of emotion > [adjective] > emotionally unaffected
dead1340
unsmittenc1400
unmovedc1480
unkindleda1525
senseless1560
lumpish1585
unfired1590
unaffectedc1595
incapable1601
unsensible1611
insensible1615
untouched1616
impervious1618
unanswering1632
untransported1641
beauty-proof1676
insensate1726
unsusceptible1734
uninfluenced1735
unimbued1813
unsmote1814
unsusceptive1825
unalive1828
echoless1869
non-conducting1871
unsusceptible1872
irresponsive1886
affectless1912
1912 G. McC. Niles Pellagra 114 Most cases showed a gradual development of an affectless stupor.
1925 J. T. MacCurdy Psychol. Emotion 119 We have seen that these stupors were essentially affectless reactions.
1949 Psychol. Bull. 46 30 The best observations we have to date indicate that the newborn infant knows neither anxiety nor confidence, fear nor happiness, but exists in an affectless and presumably consciousless state.
1967 G. Legman Fake Revolt 23 Affectless persons deny..that..anything can touch them.
1977 P. Roth Professor of Desire (1978) 72 I am so affectless and withdrawn that a rumor among the junior faculty members has me ‘under sedation’.
1991 A. Brookner Closed Eye xvii. 204 Although he knew virtually nothing about Imogen's friends, he imagined them all with the same affectless masks as she herself habitually wore.
2004 Independent 31 Mar. 29/4 Today's teenagers access the Holocaust on the web, in curiously affectless prose.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1912