Etymology Edit
A twentieth-century borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια ( empátheia , literally “ passion ” ) (formed from ἐν ( en , “ in, at ” ) + πάθος ( páthos , “ feeling ” ) ), coined by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1909 to translate German Einfühlung . The modern word in Greek εμπάθεια ( empátheia ) has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice against someone.
Pronunciation Edit
IPA (key ) : /ˈɛmpəθi/
Audio (Southern England) (file )
empathy (countable and uncountable , plural empathies )
Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person.
Synonym: fellow feeling
She had a lot of empathy for her neighbor; she knew what it was like to lose a parent too.
Capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding.
( parapsychology , science fiction ) A paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions.
( obsolete slang ) MDMA .
Synonym: ecstasy Usage notes Edit
Used similarly to sympathy , interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, empathy is stronger and more intimate, meaning that the subject understands and shares an emotion with the object—as in “I feel your pain”—while sympathy is weaker and more distant—concern, but not shared emotion: “I care for you” or "I feel sorry for you."
Derived terms Edit
Translations Edit
intellectual identification with another person
Arabic: تَعَاطُف m ( taʿāṭuf )
Belarusian: спачува́нне n ( spačuvánnje ) , суперажыва́нне n ( supjeražyvánnje ) , эмпа́тыя f ( empátyja )
Bulgarian: съприча́стие n ( sǎpričástie ) , съчу́вствие (bg) n ( sǎčúvstvie ) , емпа́тия f ( empátija )
Catalan: empatia (ca) f
Chinese:
Mandarin: 移情 (zh) ( yíqíng ) , 同感 (zh) ( tónggǎn )
Czech: empatie (cs) f
Dutch: inlevingsvermogen (nl) n , empathie (nl) f
Esperanto: empatio
Finnish: empatia (fi)
French: empathie (fr) f
Georgian: ემპათია ( emṗatia )
German: Empathie (de) f
Greek: ενσυναίσθηση (el) f ( ensynaísthisi )
Hebrew: אֶמְפַּתְיָה (he) f ( empátya )
Hindi: सहानुभूति (hi) f ( sahānubhūti ) , तदनुभूति f ( tadnubhūti )
Hungarian: empátia (hu) , beleérzés , beleérző képesség
Indonesian: empati (id)
Italian: empatia (it) f
Japanese: 共感 (ja) ( きょうかん, kyōkan )
Korean: 공감(共感) ( gonggam )
Macedonian: емпатија f ( empatija )
Malayalam: സഹാനുഭൂതി ( sahānubhūti )
Maori: ngākau aroha
Norwegian:
Bokmål: empati (no) m
Nynorsk: empati m
Persian: همدلی (fa) ( hamdeli )
Polish: empatia (pl) f
Portuguese: empatia (pt) f
Romanian: empatie (ro) f
Russian: сочу́вствие (ru) n ( sočúvstvije ) , эмпа́тия (ru) f ( empátija ) , сопережива́ние (ru) n ( sopereživánije )
Scottish Gaelic: co-fhaireachdainn m , iochd m
Slovak: empatia f , vcítenie n
Spanish: empatía (es) f
Swedish: empati (sv) c
Turkish: empati (tr)
Ukrainian: співчуття́ n ( spivčuttjá ) , емпа́тія f ( empátija ) , співпережива́ння n ( spivperežyvánnja )
Vietnamese: thấu cảm (vi)
capacity to understand another person's point of view
Further reading Edit
empathy on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
empathy at OneLook Dictionary Search
empathy in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary , edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
empathy in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911