συμπαθής

Forms

σῠμπᾰθής (sumpathḗs) m or f (neuter σῠμπᾰθές); third declension^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Ancient Greek σύν (sún, “with”) + πάθος (páthos, “experience, feeling”) + -ής (-ḗs), with the adjective suffix -ής.^[1][2][3] The stem παθ- (path-) is that of πάσχω (páskhō, “to suffer, experience”), seen in the aorist ἔπαθον (épathon).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in a fragment of Euripides, which calls an understanding wife a man's best possession.^[4] Plato Comicus and the Hippocratic treatise On Nourishment also have it.^[5][6]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is “affected by the same feelings”, sympathetic: Aristotle says the listener feels with the singer.^[5][2] In philosophy and medicine it meant “acting on each other”: the soul and body in Aristotle, the parts of an organism in Hippocratic writing and in Plotinus, and the whole world in Chrysippus.^[5] Later writers also used it of what arouses pity, and astrologers of planets in harmony.^[5][3]

Spicq notes that it implies both receptiveness and a shared nature, and that it was used of mothers with their children; the First Letter of Peter asks Christians to be sympathetic.^[2][4][7]

Modern Greek συμπαθής (simpathís) is a learned word meaning “likeable”, a sense it took from French sympathique.^[8][3]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – A fragment of Euripides calls an understanding wife a man's best possession.^[4]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it of the listener who feels with the singer, and of the soul and body as acting on each other.^[5][9]
• 3rd century BC – Chrysippus calls the world a whole in sympathy with itself.^[5][9]
• 1st century BC – Philodemus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus use it of gestures that arouse pity.^[5][9]
• 1st century AD – The First Letter of Peter tells Christians to be sympathetic.^[4][2]
• 2nd century AD – Vettius Valens uses it of planets in concord.^[5][9]
• Modern Greek – It means “likeable”, after French.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Affected by the same feelings, sympathetic, compassionate.^[5][4]
2. Acting on each other, interacting; sensitive to influence (of soul and body, organs, the parts of the world).^[5]
3. Arousing sympathy or pity.^[5][3]
4. (astrology) Of planets, in concord.^[5]

Word family

• ἀσυμπαθής (asumpathḗs)
• συμπάθεια (sumpátheia)
• συμπαθέω (sumpathéō)

Related words

• πάθος (páthos)
• πάσχω (páskhō)
• English sympathy

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Spicq, Ceslas (1994), Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, tr. James D. Ernest, 3 vols, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
3. ^ a b c d e Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
4. ^ a b c d e Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
7. ^ United Bible Societies (2023), UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament (revised Louw–Nida semantic domains), open-licence ed.
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c d Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge