compassion

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   Deep awareness of the suffering of others that people have to the point of them being motivated to relieve such states.

   Oh! the unspeakable privilege to have Him for our Father, who is the Father of mercies and compassions, and those not barren, fruitless pityings, for He is withal the God of all consolations.

2. 2
   noun

   Deep awareness of the individual experiences of suffering of others or themselves that people have to the point of them being motivated to relieve such experiences, as reflected by the psychological term self-compassion.

   Similarly to the practice of loving kindness, meditation on compassion towards our own experience builds the foundation for expansion of the circle of compassion towards others.

3. 3
   verb

   To pity.

   O heavens, can you hear a good man groan / And not relent, or not compassion him?

4. 4
   noun

   the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it

5. 5
   noun

   a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering

Etymology

From Middle English compassioun, compassion, from Old French compassion, from Ecclesiastical Latin compassio (“sympathy”), from Latin compati, past participle compassus (“to suffer together with”), from com- (“together”) + pati (“to suffer”); see passion.