Dictionary Empathy Vs Sympathy

To sum it all up.

Dictionary empathy vs sympathy. Empathy entered english a few centuries after sympathy in the late 1800s. Both empathy and sympathy are forms of having concern for another person s well being. At it s most basic sympathy is feeling sorry for someone empathy is understanding their pain. The differences between the terms are attributed to emotional factors rather than grammar.

What s the difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy refers to the ability to take part in someone else s feelings mostly by feeling sorrowful about their misfortune. While the spelling pronunciation and meaning of sympathy and empathy are all different they are each similar enough that the two words are very often confused in both speech and writing. As you get older you have more respect and empathy for your parents.

Sympathy definition origin and examples. It entered english in the mid 1500s with a very broad meaning of agreement or harmony in qualities between things or people since then the term has come to be used in a more specific way. Sympathy is the older of the two terms. Sympathy constructed from the greek sym meaning together and pathos referring to feelings or emotion is used to describe when one person shares the same feelings of another such as when someone close is experiencing grief or loss empathy is a newer word also related to pathos but there is a greater implication of emotional distance.

An expression of understanding and care for someone else s suffering. The etymology and dictionary definitions of empathy vs. The merriam webster dictionary defines sympathy as the act or capacity of entering or sharing the feelings or interests of another and the emotional and mental state that results due to the sensitivity experienced. Sympathy is experienced when the emotions of one person cause and.

It is now most often used to refer to the ability to imagine oneself in the situation of another experiencing the emotions ideas or opinions of that person. You can feel sympathy but not have empathy and vice versa. Both sympathy and empathy have roots in the greek term páthos meaning suffering feeling what is sympathy. The terms empathy and sympathy are often used interchangeably but they have quite different meanings and varied and veiled connotations.

Sympathy can also be used in relation to opinions and taste. Empathy can also mean projecting our own feeling onto a work of art or another object.