May 21 2020 32
Compathy is a noun that refers to a shared feeling.
Our word of the day combines the prefix C-O-M, which means ‘together’ with P-A-T-H-Y, a suffix of Greek origin that originally referred to ‘suffering or disease.’ More recently though, P-A-T-H-Y has been used to describe a general feeling. We see this in words like sympathy, empathy or telepathy.
When combined we get compathy, a word that refers to a shared feeling.
Everyone in the office was delighted by our softball team’s victory. It was wonderful to have this sense of compathy with people whom we had just met weeks earlier.
