Learn English – An adjective for someone who doesn’t really care about me

single-word-requests

There is a man who projects an attitude of "the things you like are so boring." He isn't really mean about it. He just doesn't care about things that are important to me. What words could I use to describe him?

Best Answer

Cavalier comes to mind, especially if he seems to consider himself better than you.

Showing a lack of proper concern; offhand:

Etymology:

cavalier (adj.) "disdainful," 1650s,

from cavalier (n.).

Earlier it meant "gallant" (1640s).

cavalier (n.)

1580s, from Italian cavalliere "mounted soldier, knight; gentleman serving as a lady's escort,"

from Late Latin caballarius "horseman," f

rom Vulgar Latin caballus, the common Vulgar Latin word for "horse" (and source of Italian cavallo, French cheval, Spanish caballo, Irish capall, Welsh ceffyl), displacing Latin equus (see equine).

Sense advanced in 17c. to "knight," then "courtly gentleman" (but also, pejoratively, "swaggerer"), which led to the adjectival senses, especially "disdainful" (1650s). Meaning "Royalist adherent of Charles I" is from 1641. Meaning "one who devotes himself solely to attendance on a lady" is from 1817, roughly translating Italian cavaliere-servente. In classical Latin caballus was "work horse, pack horse," sometimes, disdainfully, "hack, nag." "Not a native Lat. word (as the second -a- would show), though the source of the borrowing is uncertain" [Tucker]. Perhaps from some Balkan or Anatolian language, and meaning, originally, "gelding." The same source is thought to have yielded Old Church Slavonic kobyla.

The progression of meaning from gallant, a possible opposite of this man's attitude, to disdainful, a synonym of cavalier, reflects the class tensions that grew between the aristocracy and the common man during the Age of Enlightenment. Since he

"isn't really mean about it"

this dual implication may capture the essence of débonaire disdain or putting on airs (OED air 2.1).

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