commiserate

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin commiserātus, the past participle of commiseror (“to feel pity for, bewail”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with the English verb ending -ate.^[3][5] The Latin verb is formed from com- and miseror (“to bewail, lament, pity”), from miser (“wretched”).^[5][4][7][8] The prefix is read as "with, together" by Barnhart and Collins,^[3][8] as an intensive by Hoad,^[7] and as perhaps an intensive by Etymonline.^[2] The noun commiseration is recorded earlier,^[5][3] and Barnhart's Concise Dictionary suggests that the verb may be a back-formation from it.^[3] The adjective also goes back to the Latin participle.^[5][4] Old English had a loan-translation of the Latin verb, efensargian.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To feel or express pity about a person's misfortune: 1587, in the new edition of Holinshed's Chronicles.^[5] Other dictionaries date the verb later: 1585–95 in Dictionary.com,^[9] 1594 in Merriam-Webster Unabridged,^[4] about 1600 in Etymonline^[2] and 1606 in Barnhart.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Latin verb could mean both to feel pity and to seek pity.^[5] In English the object was at first the misfortune; the person who suffered it follows from 1598.^[5] The intransitive use, simply to feel or show sympathy, is recorded from 1602, in Jonson's Poetaster,^[5] and the construction commiserate with, to sympathize or condole, from 1777.^[5] Johnson (1755) still knew only the transitive verb, defining it as to pity or to look on with compassion.^[10] The word later weakened from real pity towards offering condolences, and with a plural subject it now also means to sympathize with one another.^[5] The adjective, full of pity, is recorded from 1593, in Nashe's Christs Teares ouer Ierusalem.^[5]

Timeline

• 1587 – verb, to pity a person's misfortune.^[5]
• 1593 – adjective, full of pity, compassionate.^[5]
• 1598 – verb, to pity a person.^[5]
• 1602 – verb, intransitive, to feel or show sympathy.^[5]
• 1777 – verb, to sympathize or condole with someone.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To express or share sympathy, usually followed by with: The two runners commiserated with each other after the race was cancelled.^{[8][4][11][5]}
2. To feel or express pity for a person or a misfortune: The neighbours commiserated her loss.^{[8][4][11][5]}

Adjective

1. Showing commiseration; compassionate: a commiserate nod.^[4][5]

Word family

• commiserative
• commiseratively
• commiserator
• commiseratingly
• commiseration
• commiserable
• uncommiserated
• uncommiserating

Related words

• immiseration
• misery
• miser
• miserable

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt