What, in your view, is the key difference between feeling sympathy towards someone and taking pity on someone?

Question

Request you please to be precise and concise..... I am just asking about the PRIME difference.

Answer 1

Let me put it this way. I'd rather people sympathised with me than feel pity for me. Sympathy denotes equality in relationship whereas in pity the person doing the pity feels a little 'above' that the person being pitied.

Answer 2

Sympathy is a sharing of emotions and more... a loyalty and affection. Sympathy is being the same in many ways.

Pity implies an empathy - you know what someone is feeling, though you may not share the feeling yourself. Pity would better be described as a subset of empathy, however, because it only applies when the other person is suffering.

So pity REQUIRES suffering, sympathy does not. Sympathy REQUIRES a sharing of feeling a loyalty, which pity does not.

Answer 3

Precise, I'm not sure. Concise, I can be.

Pity is when you feel them, but you don't do anything for them. Sympathy is a more preferred form of pity, because you actually want to do something for them, because you can relate.

Answer 4

To me the difference between the two is that with sympathy, you feel sorrow and sometimes sad for the person who suffered a loss of a loved one, a cherished possession, etc.

Pity is what you feel when you see an unfortunate, injured or just plain pathetic person or animal. You look at their circumstances and feel sadness and wish to do something to make those circumstances better.

Answer 5

They are the same according to the Dictionary...

Sym·pa·thy (smp-th) KEY

NOUN:
pl. sym·pa·thies

1)a) A relationship or an affinity between people or things in which whatever affects one correspondingly affects the other.
b) Mutual understanding or affection arising from this relationship or affinity.
2) a) The act or power of sharing the feelings of another.
b) A feeling or an expression of pity or sorrow for the distress of another; compassion or commiseration. Often used in the plural. See Synonyms at pity.
3) Harmonious agreement; accord: He is in sympathy with their beliefs.
4) A feeling of loyalty; allegiance. Often used in the plural: His sympathies lie with his family.
5) Physiology A relation between parts or organs by which a disease or disorder in one induces an effect in the other.



Pit·y (pt) KEY

NOUN:
pl. pit·ies
1) Sympathy and sorrow aroused by the misfortune or suffering of another.
2) A matter of regret: It's a pity she can't attend the reception.

Answer 6

Feeling sympathethetic towards someone means you have also been in the same or similar cicumstance and you understand their feelings. When you pity someone, instead of understanding the feelings involved, you actually think they are beyond help. That there isn't anything to be done to remedy the situation, or you think they won't do anything to remedy it (Self-pity). You don't really sympathize with someone you pity. It would be closer to empathy, but not exact.

Answer 7

Sympathy is an emotional affinity wherein in spite of impacts one correspondingly impacts the different, and its synonym is pity. Sympathy exists while the sentiments or thoughts of one individual provide upward push to comparable thoughts in yet another individual, transforming into a state of shared feeling. In worry-loose utilization, sympathy is in lots of situations the sharing of unhappiness or suffering, in spite of the incontrovertible fact that it may additionally examine with sharing different (helpful) thoughts as properly. In a broader experience, it may examine with the sharing of political or ideological sentiments, including interior the word "a communist sympathiser". Pity is an emotion, in lots of situations simply by fact of an come upon with an unlucky, injured, or pathetic individual or creature. a individual experiencing pity will regularly take mercy on the guy/creature, giving them help or funds. a lot of human beings pity the homeless, orphans, the terminally sick, and victims of rape and torture. simply by fact pity will bring about human beings helping the pitiful, maximum folk evaluate it a helpful element. regularly, the be conscious is used on my own in conversing to examine with something unlucky.

Answer 8

THe dictionary basically has the same meaning, but people have their own definitions.

For me, feeling sympathy for someone is feeling bad, but not enough to try to fix the situation for them because you know in time it will get better.

Feeling pity for someone is worse because the results of their unfortuate situation is usually permanent.

Answer 9

Feeling sympathy is listening to a friend when he or she is sad about something in their life just listening to them having empathy for their situation

taking pity on another is trying to help them in some way through your words or actions a person that pities another ususally will try to help them in some way :))))

Answer 10

My personal view...sympathy is being sorry and empathizing with one's personal trial or tribulation. I never liked the word pity.....I always thought it kind of sounded synonymous with pathetic. I won't mind someone's sympathy, but I never want to be pitied.