Forum: Author Hangout

Empathic vs Empathetic

awnlee jawking 🚫

I've noticed recently that 'empathetic' seems to be becoming more common, perhaps even surpassing 'empathic'.

My 60yo dictionary doesn't list 'empathetic' but lists 'empathic'.

My 25yo dictionary lists 'empathetic' as a synonym of 'empathic'.

A quick trawl via Google provided mostly frustration, but it seems to me that 'empathic' implies genuine feeling whereas 'empathetic' implies more of a distance, including the ability to simulate empathy.

I'd like opinions on the how and why of the rise of 'empathetic', and whether there is any real difference between 'empathetic' and 'empathic'. Where would you use one in preference to the other and why?

AJ

Replies: REP tendertouch samuelmichaels Switch Blayde Dicrostonyx

REP 🚫

@awnlee jawking

it seems to me that 'empathic' implies genuine feeling

I don't know where you got that definition. It actually means - showing an ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

tendertouch 🚫

@awnlee jawking

I'd like opinions on the how and why of the rise of 'empathetic', and whether there is any real difference between 'empathetic' and 'empathic'. Where would you use one in preference to the other and why?

Everything I've read says they're interchangeable, so no preference. I'd use empathetic because that's what I learned first – it certainly 'sounds' better to my ear, but that's almost certainly because it's the version I saw and heard until not that long ago.

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫
Updated:

@tendertouch

that's almost certainly because it's the version I saw and heard until not that long ago.

I suspect Brits might say the opposite. I can't remember seeing 'empathetic' in a newspaper until recently.

But then we're now calling 'batsmen' batters - partly due to political correctness because of the misconception that 'men' means male rather than human, partly to save on newspaper space and possibly to make cricket more accessible to Americans with the long-term objective of having cricket back in the Olympics.

ETA: 'empathic' 318 SOL stories, 'empathetic' 432 SOL stories, both 'empathic' and empathetic' 32 SOL stories.

AJ

samuelmichaels 🚫

@awnlee jawking

I can see it making a difference in a science fiction story with actual empaths (with paranormal ability to feel or project emotions). But otherwise, they are synonyms.

Empathetic also sounds more natural to me.

Replies: awnlee_jawking

awnlee_jawking 🚫

@samuelmichaels

I can see it making a difference in a science fiction story with actual empaths (with paranormal ability to feel or project emotions). But otherwise, they are synonyms.

Telepathy definitely holds sway over telepathetic :-)

AJ

Switch Blayde 🚫

@awnlee jawking

whether there is any real difference between 'empathetic' and 'empathic'. Where would you use one in preference to the other and why?

From Grammarly:

The words empathetic and empathic mean the same thing. Empathic is the older word, but not by much—it was first used in 1909, while the first recorded of use of empathetic is from 1932. Both words are derived from empathy, and you can use them interchangeably.

Which would I use? — empathetic
Why? — I never heard of the word "empathic."

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Switch Blayde

I've found an interesting inconsistency in my 25yo dictionary, one of the Oxford stable.

Words derived from the Greek 'patheia' are sometimes followed by the claim it means 'feeling' and sometimes 'suffering'.

AJ

Dicrostonyx 🚫

@awnlee jawking

As others have said, the words are interchangeable the only real difference being that empathic was coined a few decades before empathetic. Unless you're writing a story that takes place between 1909 and 1932 I can't see that mattering, though.

However, in science fiction and fantasy the word empath is used to refer to a person with the supernatural ability to know another person's true emotions. In this context empathic is far more common as an adjective than empathetic. The noun-adjective conversion follows the same pattern as telepath/ telepathic or mage/ magic.

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Empathic vs Empathetic

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