Sympathetic

How to spell sympathetic

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce sympathetic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sympathetic mean?

1. adjectiveFeeling or showing understanding and compassion toward someone else's situation or feelings.
2. adjectiveInclined to support or approve of an idea, cause, or argument.

Sympathetic in a sentence

• The manager was sympathetic when she explained why she needed time off.

• The committee was broadly sympathetic to the proposal for flexible hours.

• He gave a sympathetic nod as his neighbour described the flooded basement.

• Investors proved sympathetic to the company's long-term plan.

Where does sympathetic come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to the Greek sympatheia, which literally meant 'feeling together' or 'a shared suffering', built from syn 'with, together' and pathos 'feeling, suffering, emotion'. The Greeks used it for a kind of fellow feeling between people or even between parts of the body that seemed to respond to one another. It travelled through Latin as sympatheticus and into French before settling into English around the early 1600s, at first in scientific and medical writing about parts that act in concert. From there it broadened into the everyday sense of being moved by another person's troubles and showing kindness toward them. The same pathos root underlies relatives such as 'pathetic', 'empathy' and 'apathy', and remembering that buried 'path' (the 'feeling' element) helps explain why the middle of the word is spelled p-a-t-h and not the 'th' sound a speller might expect.

How the word is built

• sym- (together, with)
• path (feeling, suffering)
• -etic (adjective suffix)