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PATH: the Greek root meaning “feeling, suffering”

PATH comes from Greek and means “feeling, suffering”. You can see it in empathy, pathologist and sociopath. WordPith uses it in 15 words.

Meaning
feeling, suffering
Origin
Greek
Type
Root
Also spelled
PATHO
Word lists
Core Roots, MCAT / NCLEX / UCAT, Medical Terms, Psychology

Words built from PATH

EMPATHY

empathy

Feeling into someone else’s situation

Coined in 1909 to translate German Einfühlung, in-feeling, first used about art.

PATHOLOGIST

pathologist

A specialist in what disease does to tissue

Greek pathos, suffering. The pathologist has the last word on most diagnoses.

SOCIOPATH

sociopath

Someone whose disorder shows in how they treat others

Latin socius, companion: the suffering shows up socially rather than privately.

SYMPATHY

sympathy

Sharing in someone else's feelings

Greek sympatheia: feeling together.

ANTIPATHY

antipathy

A settled dislike, feeling against

Greek antipatheia. Its opposite, sympathy, is feeling with.

APATHY

apathy

Not caring either way

Without feeling. The Stoics thought it was a virtue.

EMPATHIC

empathic

Able to feel with another person

The same in-feeling. Empathetic came later and is now the commoner form.

HISTOPATHOLOGY

histopathology

The study of diseased tissue under the microscope

Tissue plus suffering plus study.

HOMEOPATHY

homeopathy

Treating with tiny doses of what causes the symptoms

Greek homoios pathos, like suffering.

IDIOPATHIC

idiopathic

Arising on its own: cause unknown

Greek idios, one’s own. Idiom and idiot are the same privacy, one flattering and one not.

OSTEOPATH

osteopath

A practitioner who treats by manipulating bones

Greek osteon, a bone, plus pathos, suffering.

PSYCHOPATH

psychopath

Someone with a severe disorder of feeling and conscience

Mind plus suffering: a 19th-century medical coinage for a sickness of the mind.

PSYCHOPATHIC

psychopathic

Showing a severe lack of empathy or remorse

Greek psykhe, the mind.

SYMPATHIZE

sympathize

To share in someone's feelings

To feel together. The verb followed the noun sympathy into English in the 1500s.

TELEPATHY

telepathy

Sensing another person's thoughts from afar

Coined in 1882 by the psychical researcher F. W. H. Myers: feeling at a distance.

Quick check

1. Which word means: A practitioner who treats by manipulating bones?

2. Which word means: Treating with tiny doses of what causes the symptoms?

3. Which word means: Feeling into someone else’s situation?

Roots that pair with PATH

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