the.com/pity
compassion's condescending cousin, arriving with help in one hand and a quiet verdict in the other
means A feeling of sorrow or sympathy for someone else's suffering or misfortune, sometimes tinged with a sense of being above them.
from From Old French 'pite' (compassion), itself from Latin 'pietas' — meaning dutifulness, devotion, and tenderness toward family and gods. That same root gave us 'piety,' so pity and piousness are siblings: both began as the soft loyalty you owe to others. Over centuries, English narrowed the warmth down to feeling sorry for someone.
- latin root
- shares an origin with piety and dutiful devotion
- compassion gap
- feels for you from a safe distance above
- aristotle's view
- key tragic emotion, paired with fear onstage
- the cobra
- "more than my poor heart can stand" mocks self-pity
- unwanted gift
- most people would rather be respected than pitied
for instance
spina bifida research funding — march of dimes raised millions in 1950s-60s through public pity appeals for paralyzed children