Miserate

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To express sympathy or to show compassion towards someone suffering or in a difficult situation
2. To feel or articulate sorrow for the misfortunes experienced by another person
3. To convey a sense of shared sadness or empathy regarding the hardships faced by someone else

Etymology: "Miserate" is a rare verb meaning to feel pity for someone, and its shape gives away its make-up: it is built from "misery" with the verb-forming ending "-ate." That ending, borrowed from Latin verbs like "vituperate" and "commiserate," turns a noun into an action, so the word means something like "to act out misery toward another." The most useful comparison is "commiserate," which is the common relative. "Commiserate" combines "com-" (together) with a root meaning pity, and it means to sympathize with someone in distress. "Miserate" follows the same pattern, substituting the English noun "misery" for the Latin base, and it has a close cousin in "immiserate," which means to reduce someone to poverty or wretchedness, the opposite direction of the same noun. Behind all of this lies the Latin verb "miseror," meaning to pity or lament, which likely supplied the model for the English family of words. Because the word is a formation of English elements rather than a direct inheritance from Latin, its meaning stays close to its parts: misery, and the act of responding to it.

Synonyms: lament, regret, bewail, deplore, mourn

Antonyms: rejoice, celebrate, delight, enjoy, exult