detachment

detachment (dɪˈtætʃmənt)

—n
1.	indifference to other people or to one's surroundings; aloofness
2.	freedom from self-interest or bias; disinterest
3.	the act of disengaging or separating something
4.	the condition of being disengaged or separated; disconnection
5.	military
	a. the separation of a small unit from its main body, esp of ships or troops
	b. the unit so detached
6.	(Canadian) a branch office of a police force
7.	logic See also modus ponens the rule whereby the consequent of a true conditional statement, given the truth of its antecedent, may be asserted on its own

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

detachment

1660s, "action of detaching," from Fr. détachement (17c.), from détacher (see detach). Meaning "portion of a military force" is from 1670s; that of "aloofness from objects or circumstances" is from 1798.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

detachment de·tach·ment (dĭ-tāch'mənt)
n.

The act or process of disconnecting or detaching; separation.
The state of being separate or detached.
Indifference to or remoteness from the concerns of others; aloofness.
Absence of prejudice or bias; disinterest.

Example sentences

He is observing us with a perfect combination of attention and detachment.

Two colonels, both barefoot, also form part of the detachment.

Retinal detachment usually begins with a tear or break in the retina.

His engaged detachment prevents him from acquiring biases and hobby horses.

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Matching Quote

"Hebraism contains no eternal realm of essence, which Greek philosophy was to fabricate, through Plato, as affording the intellectual deliverance from the evil of time. Such a realm of eternal essences is possible only for a detached intellect, one who, in Plato's phrase, becomes a "spectator of all time and all existence." This ideal of the philosopher as the highest human type—the theoretical intellect who from the vantage point of eternity can survey all time and existence—is altogether foreign to the Hebraic concept of the man of faith who is passionately committed to his own mortal being. Detachment was for the Hebrew an impermissible state of mind, a vice rather than a virtue; or rather it was something that Biblical man was not yet even able to conceive, since he had not reached the level of rational abstraction of the Greek. His existence was too earth-bound, too laden with oppressive images of mortality, to permit him to experience the philosopher's detachment."

-William Barrett