Wednesday, December 12, 2012

adiaphorous


Word of the Day 

adiaphorous \ad-ee-AF-er-uhs\, adjective: 

Doing neither good nor harm, as a medicine. 

Sun and Mr. Allworthy are united, but with a difference: the sun, in all his majesty and splendor is, in the words of Boyle, "adiaphorous" unthinking matter, whereas Mr. Allworthy is a moral agent . . . 
-- Jina Politi, The Novel and Its Presuppositions 

. . .which participates of neither extreme, as for example, all those things which, as being neither good nor evil in themselves, we call adiaphorous, or indifferent. 
-- William Watson Goodwin, Plutarch's Morals 

Adiaphorous is derived from the Greek, adiaphoros, meaning 'indifferent.' 


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