different between sympathy vs pathos

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French sympathie, from Late Latin sympath?a (“feeling in common”), from Ancient Greek ?????????? (sumpátheia, “fellow feeling”), from ???????? (sumpath?s, “affected by like feelings; exerting mutual influence, interacting”) +? -?? (-ia, “-y”, nominal suffix); equivalent to sym- (“acting or considered together”) +? -pathy (“feeling”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?m.p??.i/
• Rhymes: -?mp??i

Noun

sympathy (countable and uncountable, plural sympathies)

1. A feeling of pity or sorrow for the suffering or distress of another.

   Synonym: compassion

   1. (in the plural) The formal expression of pity or sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
   2. The ability to share the feelings of another.
2. Inclination to think or feel alike; emotional or intellectual accord; common feeling.
   1. (in the plural) Support in the form of shared feelings or opinions.
   2. Feeling of loyalty; tendency towards, agreement with or approval of an opinion or aim; a favorable attitude.

3. An affinity, association or mutual relationship between people or things such that they are correspondingly affected by any condition.
   1. Mutual or parallel susceptibility or a condition brought about by it.
   2. (art) Artistic harmony, as of shape or colour in a painting.

Usage notes

• Used similarly to empathy, interchangeably in looser usage. In stricter usage, empathy is stronger and more intimate, while sympathy is weaker and more distant; see empathy: usage notes.

Antonyms

• contempt (context-dependent)

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “sympathy”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “sympathy”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).

English

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ????? (páthos, “suffering”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?pe????s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?pe???o?s/, /?pæ??o?s/

Noun

pathos (countable and uncountable, plural pathoses)

1. The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From The Madding Crowd, 1874:

     His voice had a genuine pathos now, and his large brown hands perceptibly trembled.

   • 20 August 2018, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett in The Guardian, Young women are smashing it at Edinburgh as the #MeToo legacy kicks in

     Pritchard-McLean’s show is perfectly constructed, and at times deeply moving to the point where some audience members were near tears, yet the pathos is undercut by true belly laughs – but don’t trust me, read the reviews.

2. (rhetoric) A writer or speaker's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions such as pity.
3. (literature) An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
4. (theology, philosophy) In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.
5. Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:pathos.

Related terms

• antipathy
• apathy
• bathos
• empathy
• pathetic
• patience
• patient
• pathology
• pathogen
• psychopathy
• sympathy

Translations

Further reading

• pathos in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pathos in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• pathos on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Pashto, Potash, potash, sophta

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• páthos, patos

Noun

pathos m (plural pathos)

1. pathos (the quality of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions)

Spanish

Noun

pathos m (plural pathos)

1. pathos