sympathia

Forms

sympathīa f (genitive sympathīae); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek συμπάθεια (sumpátheia, “fellow feeling”),^[2][1][3] from συμπαθής (sumpathḗs, “affected by like feelings”).^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Varro uses it in the Menippean Satires (409).^[4][5][6]

Semantic evolution

It named a supposed natural affinity between things in nature,^[2] the opposite of antipathia.^[4] Cicero discusses it in De divinatione (2.143),^[4][6] where, according to Lewis & Short and Gaffiot, he writes it in Greek.^[7][5] Vitruvius speaks of a sympathia of the stars,^[4] and Pliny the Elder uses it of natural affinities.^[7][4]

In medieval British sources it is also fellow feeling or compassion: Beleth links it with the compassion we feel for others, and Bacon glosses it as compassio.^[8] Ecclesiastical Latin has the sense “sympathy”.^[9] English used the Latin form in the 1570s before adopting sympathy in the 1580s, from French and directly from Late Latin, first for the affinity between things.^[10]

Timeline

• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it in the Menippean Satires.^[4][3]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero discusses the natural affinity it names.^[4][3]
• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius speaks of a sympathia of the stars.^[4][3]
• AD 23/24–79 – Pliny the Elder uses it of natural affinities.^[7][3]
• 1570s – English uses the Latin form; sympathy follows in the 1580s.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A natural affinity or correspondence between things, sympathy.^[2][7][4]
2. (Medieval Latin) Fellow feeling, compassion.^[8][9]

Related words

• antipathia
• English sympathy

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ a b Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com