The ability to understand and share the feelings of another; the capacity to place oneself in another person's position and experience their emotions.
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Greek1909well-attested
Coined in 1909 by English psychologist Edward Titchener as a translation of German 'Einfühlung' (literally 'feeling into'), itself coined by aesthetician Robert Vischer in 1873 for the projection of human feeling into art objects. Titchener modeled the English word on Greek 'empatheia' (physical affection, passion), from 'en-' (in) + 'pathos' (feeling, suffering, experience), from PIE *kʷent- (to suffer). TheGreekroot
an enormous English word family: 'sympathy' (feeling with), 'apathy' (without feeling), 'antipathy' (feeling against), 'pathology' (study of suffering), 'pathetic,' and '-pathy' as a productive suffix. The