different between reciprocity vs empathy

English

Etymology

From French réciprocité

Noun

reciprocity (countable and uncountable, plural reciprocities)

1. The characteristic of being reciprocal, e.g. of a relationship between people.

   In a friendship, reciprocity occurs where the contribution of each party meets the expectations of the other party.

2. A reciprocal relationship.
3. A relation of mutual dependence or action or influence.
4. (grammar) A reciprocal construction involves two noun phrases where each of the participants occupies both the role of agent and patient with respect to the other. see: Wikipedia:Reciprocal pronoun.
5. (international law) The mutual exchange of rights, privileges or obligations between nations. see: Wikipedia:Reciprocity (international relations).
6. (psychology) The responses of individuals to the actions of others.

Derived terms

• ethic of reciprocity

Related terms

• reciprocality

Translations

English

Etymology

A twentieth-century borrowing from Ancient Greek ???????? (empátheia, literally “passion”) (formed from ?? (en, “in, at”) + ????? (páthos, “feeling”)), coined by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1909 to translate German Einfühlung. The modern word in Greek ???????? (empátheia) has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice against someone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??mp??i/

Noun

empathy (countable and uncountable, plural empathies)

1. Identification with or understanding of the thoughts, feelings, or emotional state of another person.

2. Capacity to understand another person's point of view or the result of such understanding.
3. (parapsychology, science fiction) A paranormal ability to psychically read another person's emotions.
4. (obsolete slang) MDMA.

   Synonym: ecstasy

Usage notes

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”.

Derived terms

• empath

Translations

See also

• telepathy
• biopathy
• cyberpathy
• technopathy
• sympathy

Further reading

• 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.