Impassionedness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of being deeply passionate or emotionally charged, characterized by a fervent expression of feelings and strong enthusiasm in one's pursuits or beliefs
2. The quality of showing strong and sincere emotions with great intensity
3. A condition marked by fervent feelings and energetic emotional involvement

Etymology: Impassionedness is a plain formation: the adjective "impassioned" with the suffix "-ness" added to turn a quality into a noun. The adjective itself is built from "impassion," a verb meaning to fill with strong feeling, which in turn comes from "passion" with the prefix "im-" ("in") attached. Passion, from Latin "passio," originally meant suffering or enduring something, and only later came to mean intense emotion, so the chain of meaning runs from endurance to fervour. The "-ness" suffix is one of English's oldest and most productive noun-forming endings, descending from Old English and used to turn almost any adjective into a term for its quality. That makes this word a regular, transparent product of English word-building rather than a borrowing or a coinage with a dramatic backstory.

Synonyms: fervor, intensity, passion, zeal, ardor

Antonyms: indifference, apathy, disinterest, detachment, calmness