Pathic

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to or characterized by feeling or emotion; pertaining to the capacity to suffer or be affected; describing conditions involving sympathy or passion
2. Associated with experiencing or expressing emotions; connected to the ability to undergo sensations or sufferings; indicating traits involving empathy or emotional response
3. Concerned with the manifestations of feelings; linked to susceptibility to emotional or physical distress; referring to qualities of sensitivity or compassionate response

Etymology: The Greek verb "páskhō" meant "to feel" and, more often, "to suffer," and from it came "páthos," a word for suffering or feeling. The adjective "pathikós" grew from that noun, and Latin borrowed it as "pathicus." English took the word from Latin, so "pathic" carries the same double sense of undergoing something rather than doing it. The sense "relating to feeling" is the older and gentler one, and it is what the word means here. The root that gives us "pathos" and "sympathy" is the same one, so "pathic" sits in a family of English words built around emotion, even though it is rarely used on its own today. Its more severe older sense of passive suffering is what the Greek root kept closest to.