Compassion (kuhm-PASH-un)
Category:
Emotion & Psychology
Origin
From Middle English and Old French compassion, from Late Latin compassio, meaning “fellow feeling” or “sympathy,” derived from compati, “to suffer with.”
Language Root
Latin com- (“with, together”) + pati (“to suffer, endure”) → compati (“to suffer with”) → compassio → compassion.
Original Meaning
To suffer with another person; a sympathetic awareness of another person’s suffering.
Evolution Over Time
Compassion developed from the idea of sharing or deeply recognizing another person’s suffering into a broader emotional and ethical concept involving concern for suffering and a desire to alleviate it. Compassion became important across religious, philosophical, medical, and psychological traditions, although different traditions developed their own distinct concepts and terminology around it.
Modern Usage
Sympathetic concern for another person’s suffering or difficulties, often accompanied by a desire to help, comfort, or reduce that suffering.
Word Family
Compassion, Compassionate, Compassionately, Compassionless
Related Concept
Empathy, Sympathy, Suffering, Kindness, Mercy, Altruism, Generosity, Benevolence, Humanity, Human Nature, Love, Relationships, Friendship, Care, Caring, Forgiveness, Understanding, Emotional Intelligence, Prosocial Behavior, Helping Behavior, Cooperation, Community, Social Connection, Moral Responsibility, Ethics, Morality, Self-Compassion, Mindfulness, Gratitude, Humility, Sacrifice, Charity, Reciprocity, Resilience, Healing, Well-Being, Buddhism, Karuṇā, Human Experience
Narrative
Empathy can help you feel another person’s pain. Compassion asks what you might do about it. The history of the word contains that idea: to suffer with. A stranger is struggling. A friend is grieving. Someone makes a mistake while carrying a burden you cannot see. Compassion does not require approving of everything another person does. It begins by recognizing the humanity behind the struggle. Sometimes the distance between two people becomes smaller when one person is willing to say, in words or actions: you don’t have to carry this entirely alone.