commiserate

English

WOTD – 18 February 2012

Etymology 1

From commiserātus, the perfect passive participle of commiseror.

Pronunciation

  • (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kəmĭʹzərət, IPA(key): /kəˈmɪzəɹət/
  • (file)

Adjective

commiserate (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete, rare) commiserating, pitying, lamentful
    • 1593: Thomas Nashe, Christ’s Teares over Jerusalem, page 157 (1815 edited republication)
      In the time of Gregory Nazianzene, if we may credit ecclesiastical records, there sprung up the direfulest mortality in Rome that mankind hath been acquainted with; scarce able were the living to bury the dead, and not so much but their streets were digged up for graves, which this holy Father (with no little commiserate heart-bleeding) beholding, commanded all the clergy (for he was at that time their chief bishop) to assemble in prayer and supplications, and deal forcingly beseeching with God, to intermit his fury and forgive them.

References

Etymology 2

Modelled upon commiserāt-, the perfect passive participial stem of the Latin commiseror.

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Verb

commiserate (third-person singular simple present commiserates, present participle commiserating, simple past and past participle commiserated)

  1. (transitive) To feel or express compassion or sympathy for (someone or something).
    A few individuals who commiserated the unhappy condition of British negro slaves.
    • 1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXXVI, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. [], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, [], →OCLC, page 160:
      Lord Meersbrook had remarked the same woman a day or two before, peering into the area, as if looking for some of the servants, yet neither venturing to ring nor knock; he concluded she was there for no good, but the self-commiserating tone in which she spoke, together with her Irish accent, now caught his ear;...
  2. (intransitive, as the phrasal verb commiserate with) To sympathize; condole.
  3. (transitive, intransitive) To offer condolences jointly with; express sympathy with. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References

  • commiserate, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]

Italian

Verb

commiserate

  1. inflection of commiserare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Participle

commiserate f pl

  1. feminine plural of commiserato

Anagrams

Latin

Participle

commiserāte

  1. vocative masculine singular of commiserātus
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