different between pity vs compassionable

English

Alternative forms

• pittie, pitty, pitie (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English pitye, pitie, pittye, pitee, pite, from Anglo-Norman pité, pittee etc., from Old French pitet, pitié, from Latin piet?s. See also the doublets pietà and piety.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?ti/
• Rhymes: -?ti

Noun

pity (countable and uncountable, plural pities)

1. (uncountable) A feeling of sympathy at the misfortune or suffering of someone or something.

   • He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto the Lord.

   • , Folio Society, 2006, p.5:

     The most usuall way to appease those minds we have offended […] is, by submission to move them to commiseration and pitty.

2. (countable) Something regrettable.

   • It was a thousand pities.

   • What pity is it / That we can die but once to serve our country!

3. (obsolete) Piety.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif to this entry?)

Synonyms

• (mercy): ruth
• (something regrettable): shame

Translations

Verb

pity (third-person singular simple present pities, present participle pitying, simple past and past participle pitied)

1. (transitive) To feel pity for (someone or something). [from 15th c.]

   • Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

2. (transitive, now regional) To make (someone) feel pity; to provoke the sympathy or compassion of. [from 16th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, IV.11:

     She lenger yet is like captiv'd to bee; / That even to thinke thereof it inly pitties mee.

   • a. 1681, Richard Allestree, Of Gods Method in giving Deliverance

     It pitieth them to see her in the dust.

Translations

Interjection

pity!

1. Short form of what a pity.

Synonyms

• shame, what a pity, what a shame

Translations

Derived terms

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?p?t?]

Verb

pity

1. inflection of pít:
   1. inanimate masculine plural passive participle
   2. feminine plural passive participle

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?it?/

Participle

pity

1. past passive participle of pi?

Declension

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?i.t?/

Participle

pity

1. masculine singular passive adjectival participle of pi?

Declension

Noun

pity f

1. inflection of pita:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

English

Etymology

compassion +? -able

Adjective

compassionable (comparative more compassionable, superlative most compassionable)

1. (archaic) Deserving compassion or pity.

   Synonym: pitiable

   • 1585, Robert Parsons, A Christian Directorie Guiding Men to their Saluation, Rouen: Fr. Parson’s Press, Part 1, Chapter 8,^[1]

     He spared him not […] euen then, when he beheld him sorowful vnto death, and bathed in that agonie of blood and water, when he hard him vtter thos most dolorous and compassionable speeches, O my father, if it be possible, let this cuppe passe from me.

   • 1678, Isaac Barrow, Several Sermons against Evil-Speaking, London: Brabazon Aylmer, The Eighth Sermon, p. 60,^[2]

     […] a good Judg […] should tender the Parties Case as compassionable, and desire that he may be delivered from the evil threatning him;

   • 1770, Francis Gentleman, The Dramatic Censor: or, Critical Companion, London: J. Bell, Volume 1, “Romeo and Juliet, altered from Shakespeare by Garrick,” p. 184,^[3]

     The following interview between Juliet and her parents places her in a very compassionable situation;

   • 1890, “On Idleness,” All the Year Round, Series 3, Volume 3, No. 76, 14 June, 1890, p. 557,^[4]

     A man of this kind, on an enforced holiday, is a very compassionable object.

2. (obsolete) Having, feeling, or showing compassion.

   Synonym: compassionate

   • 1536, uncredited translator (attributed to Miles Coverdale), A Myrrour or Glasse for them that be Syke [and] in Payne by Guglielmus Gnaphaeus, London: Ian Gough,^[5]

     Can not thynke ye the poore haue a mercifull, and compassionable harte towarde the, that be in pouerte, & anguysshe, though theyr power can not extende to declare it?

   • 1625, Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, Part 2 in Five Books, London: Henry Fetherstone, “Præritorum, or Discoveries of the World,” Chapter 13, p. 1843,^[6]

     […] they in reuenge pulled mee by the heeles from the horse backe, beating me most pittifully, and left mee almost for dead […] and if it had not beene for some compassionable Greekes, who by accident came by and relieued me, I had (doubtlesse) immediately perished.