Unmoved

Unmoved

Adjective · /ʌnˈmuːvd/ · not emotionally affected or persuaded; remaining firm and unaffected

Definition

Unmoved describes a person — or sometimes a thing — that has not been affected, altered, or emotionally stirred by something intended or expected to cause a reaction. When someone remains unmoved by a passionate speech, they heard every word and felt nothing shift inside them. When a judge stays unmoved by a defendant's tears, the evidence alone will shape the verdict. The word carries a note of controlled gravity.

Origin

Unmoved is built from the negative prefix un- and the past participle moved. To be moved — in its emotional sense — means to be stirred, touched, deeply affected. That figurative use of moved has roots in the Latin movere and was well established in English by the fifteenth century. Unmoved became its negation — the state of remaining closed when the world expected you to open. It appears in philosophical, legal, and literary writing wherever studied indifference carries weight.