冷淡

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 冷淡 is a na-adjective read れいたん, meaning cold or indifferent toward another person's needs or feelings. It appears as 冷淡な or 冷淡だった.
• Basic usage: It can describe taking a cold attitude toward a call for help or judging an answer to be surprisingly indifferent.
  • 助けを求める声に冷淡な態度を取った。 says that a cold attitude was taken toward the call for help; 彼の返事は驚くほど冷淡だった。 says that his answer was surprisingly indifferent.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• 声に冷淡な態度を取る
  • に marks the call for help as what received the cold attitude.
• 驚くほど冷淡だ
  • ほど emphasizes that the answer was indifferent to a surprising degree.
• 冷淡 and 冷静
  • 冷淡 is emotionally cold or indifferent toward others, while 冷静 is calm and not carried away by emotion.