Stoic
Etymology
From Greek "stoikos," referring to the "Stoa Poikile" ("painted porch") in Athens where the philosopher Zeno taught around 300 BCE. The school held that virtue and reason, not fortune, are the path to a good life; the everyday adjective distilled that into unshaken composure.
adjective · /STOH-ik/
Enduring hardship or pain without complaint or visible emotion.
What it names
A bearing of calm endurance — and points back to an entire ancient philosophy of living by reason and accepting what you can’t control.
Example
She took the diagnosis with a stoic calm that unnerved everyone around her.
Related idea
Stoic (lowercase) describes a temperament; Stoicism (capitalized) is the formal philosophy behind it — the second gives the reasons the first often forgets.
noun · /STOH-ik/
A follower of Stoicism, the ancient Greek school holding that virtue and reason are the path to a good life and that we should calmly accept what lies beyond our control.
What it names
An adherent of the philosophical school, not just a person who hides emotion.
Example
As a Stoic, Marcus Aurelius trained himself to greet each misfortune with equanimity.
Related idea
The Stoic ideal of inner calm is close to ataraxia, and their teaching to welcome one’s fate anticipates amor-fati.