Strength of etymology

An excerpt from Milan Kundera’s ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’.

The novel is set in Prague in around 1961, weaves history – the Russian invasion in 1968 -- and philosophy into the storyline - which has so far been well interspersed with such insights, thoughts.

All languages that derive from Latin form the word "compassion" by combining the prefix "with" (com-) and the root meaning "suffering" (Late Latin, passio). In other languages - Czech, Polish, German, and Swedish for instance - this word is translated by a noun formed of an equivalent prefix combined with the word that means "feeling" (Czech, sou-cit; Polish współ-czucie; German Mit-gefühl; Swedish med-känsla).

In languages that derive from Latin, "compassion" means: we cannot look on coolly as others suffer; or, we symphathize with those who suffer. Another word with approximately the same meaning, "pity" (French pitié; Italian piéta; etc.), connotes a certain condescension towards the sufferer. "To pity on a woman" means that we are better off than she, that we stoop to her level, lower than ourselves.

That is why the word "compassion" generally inspires suspicion; it designates what is considered inferior, second-rate sentiment that has little to do with love. To love someone out of compassion means not really to love.

In languages that form the word "compassion" not from the root "suffering" but from the root word "feeling," the word is used in approximately the same way, but to contend that it designates a bad or inferior sentiment is difficult.

The secret strength of its etymology floods the word with another light and gives it a broader meaning: to have compassion (co-feeling) means not only to be able to live with the other's misfortune but also to feel with him any emotion - joy, anxiety, happiness, pain. This kind of compassion (in the sense of soucit; współczucie; Mitgefühl; medkänsla) therefore signifies the maximal capacity of affective imagination, the art of emotional telepathy. In the hierarchy of sentiments, then, it is supreme.