empathetic

Etymology

In the OED it is an alteration from English of empathic, after apathetic and sympathetic.^[2] Etymonline, the Shorter Oxford and Merriam-Webster Unabridged derive it from empathy on the model of sympathy and sympathetic;^[3][4][5] Etymonline adds that it was said to have been meant at first as distinct from empathic.^[3] The noun empathy is formed from em- and -pathy,^[2] modelled on German Einfühlung, which Etymonline traces to Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empátheia, “passion, state of emotion”), from ἐν- (en-, “in”) and πάθος (páthos, “feeling”).^[3][2][6] The OED notes that the form empathetic had occasional earlier, unrelated use for emphatic.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Relating to or showing empathy: 1912, in the journal Mind, in a report on a German paper of 1911 by M. Geiger on Einfühlung, which itself uses no such adjective.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1909,^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1932,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1930–35.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged at first to psychology and aesthetics, where empathy named the projection of oneself into an object of contemplation.^[3][2] In 1918 E. E. Southard argued in The Journal of Abnormal Psychology that empathic was the better adjective, since empathetic would suggest pathos even more than sympathetic does.^[3] Both forms survived; the OED now defines empathic by empathetic, and uses it especially of a person able to share another's feelings.^[2]

Timeline

• 1912 – relating to or showing empathy.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1909,^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1932.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Able to understand and share the feelings of another person; showing empathy: an empathetic nurse.^[2][5][4]
2. Relating to or involving empathy.^[2][5]

Word family

• empathetically

Related words

• empathy
• empathic
• empathize
• sympathetic
• apathetic
• pathetic

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Shorter Oxford treat empathetic as having the same meaning as empathic,^[5][4] and Dictionary.com lists empathic as an alternative form.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House