compassionate

Etymology

The OED takes it as borrowed from French compassionné, latinized, the past participle of compassionner (“to feel compassion for”), made to look like English adjectives in -ate.^[2][3] Etymonline and Dictionary.com instead form it from English compassion + -ate,^[4][5] and the Oxford Dictionary of English combines the two: the English formation, influenced by the archaic French adjective.^[6] Compassion is from Old French compassion (“sympathy, pity”), from Late Latin compassiō (“sympathy”), from compatior (“to feel pity”), formed from com- (“with, together”) and patior (“to suffer”).^[4][2] Etymonline calls the Latin noun a church loan-translation of Ancient Greek συμπάθεια (sumpátheia), the source of sympathy.^[4] The verb is either formed from the adjective or is a latinized form of the French verb.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Feeling or showing compassion; pitying, sympathetic: 1587, in J. Higgins's Mirour for Magistrates.^[2] Merriam-Webster dates the first known use to 1579,^[7] and Etymonline to the 1580s.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept its first meaning, "inclined to pity", which Johnson (1755) glossed as "merciful; tender; melting; soft".^[8][2] Several early extensions died out: Shakespeare used it in Richard II (1597) for sorrowfully lamenting or piteous,^[2] while between 1630 and 1767 it could mean "fitted to excite compassion, pitiable".^[2][7] From 1830 it was used of allowances and leave granted out of compassion rather than legal obligation,^[2][3] as in compassionate leave.^[3] The verb, to pity or feel compassion for, is recorded from 1592 according to Merriam-Webster,^[7] or 1598, in Marston, according to the OED,^[2] and is now archaic.^[3] In American politics the phrase compassionate conservatism is recorded by 1992 and was popularized, if not coined, by Marvin Olasky.^[4]

Timeline

• 1579 – first known use of the adjective, according to Merriam-Webster.^[7]
• 1587 – feeling or showing compassion.^[2]
• 1592 – verb, to pity, according to Merriam-Webster.^[7]
• 1597 – lamenting, or piteous, in Shakespeare's Richard II (now obsolete).^[2]
• 1598 – verb, to regard or treat with compassion, according to the OED.^[2]
• 1630 – arousing pity, pitiable (obsolete by 1767).^[2]
• 1830 – granted out of compassion, of allowances and leave.^[2]
• by 1992 – compassionate conservatism in American politics.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Feeling or showing compassion; sympathetic and ready to pity: The nurse spoke in a compassionate voice.^[9][7][2]
2. Granted out of compassion rather than legal obligation, as leave after a family death: compassionate leave.^[2][3]
3. (obsolete, 1630–1767) Arousing pity; pitiable.^[2][7]

Verb

1. (archaic) To feel or show compassion for; to pity or commiserate with.^[7][3][2]

Word family

• compassionately
• compassionateness
• uncompassionate

Related words

• compassion
• passion
• patient
• sympathy

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins