Before too long, they’ll be saying ‘apathy.”

The words are quite close in meaning and in common usage they’ve become synonymous. Originally, empathy referred to a close identification with other people’s feelings, while sympathy is more distant. Recently I’ve come across some people (online, at least) claiming to be “empaths”, meaning they have a nearly supernatural ability to feel other people’s feelings. Not sure whether I believe them, but that illustrates the concept of empathy more clearly: it’s feeling someone else’s feelings, as opposed to sympathy which can be simply compassion, or at the least, pity.

ok so do you think “sympathy” will cease to exist ?

I don’t think so. I actually find the word “sympathetic” to be much more common than “sympathy”. People say things like “I’m sympathetic to the cause”. It wouldn’t make any sense to say “empathetic” there. So I think it will survive in expressions like that.

I actually would be slightly surprised if I even read, “sympathy to the cause” again.

Language is fluid. So we should expect words and concepts to change.

That said, I have not witnessed the empathy takeover of sympathy that you have described.

I’ve seen both still. They do have slightly different meanings.

Actually, sympathy was originally the closer word.

If someone has had an experience that resonates with you personally, perhaps because of one’s own experience, that is sympathy.

Empathy is the ability to relate to another person’s experience even without a similar experience. But no one can ever really know how another person feels.

I don’t think one has replaced the other. I think people are more aware of being empathetic, but the two words are distinctly different and used in different contexts.

One does not send an empathy card after a death. One feels sympathy for a person’s loss; how well you express it may demonstrate empathy.

Sympathy has come to be connected in people’s minds with “thoughts and prayers.” In other words, it’s seen as shallow, self-serving, and hypocritical. As an anarchist, I am exquisitely aware of the way the word “anarchy” has likewise come to be connected in people’s minds with violence, chaos, and disorder.

Thus, for the same reason anarchists now largely refer to anarchism or direct democracy or left libertarianism and other such terms to avoid the kneejerk reaction people have when they hear the word anarchy, many people now replace sympathy with empathy just to avoid being seen as a mealy-mouthed Pharisee.

I don’t believe I’ve ever used the word ‘empathy.’