The story
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁én
- Ancient Greekἐν (en)
- Ancient Greekπάσχω (páskhō)
- Ancient Greekπάθος (páthos)
- Ancient Greekἐμπαθής (empathḗs)
- Ancient Greekἐμπάθεια (empátheia)
- GermanEinfühlung
- English todayempathy
A 20th-century borrowing from Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empátheia, literally “passion”) (formed from ἐν (en, “in, at”) + πάθος (páthos, “feeling”)), equivalent to em- + -pathy, coined by Edward Bradford Titchener in 1909 to translate German Einfühlung. The modern word in Greek εμπάθεια (empátheia) has an opposite meaning denoting strong negative feelings and prejudice against someone.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.