sympatheticadj.n.
/sɪmpəˈθɛtɪk/ A. adj.
1. in extended use.1878 C. T. Kingzett Animal Chem. 52 Sympathetic saliva is furnished on irritation of the sympathetic nerve.
a. Relating to, involving, depending on, acting or effected by ‘sympathy’, or a (real or supposed) affinity, correspondence, or occult influence; esp. in sympathetic powder = ‘powder of sympathy’: see sympathy n. 1. Now chiefly Historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > [adjective] > relating to or involving correspondence
sympathical1570
sympathetical1639
sympathic1659
sympathetic1661
the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > preparations to heal or generate tissue > [noun] > for healing wounds or fractures > for healing wounds > applied to weapon, etc.
weapon-salve1631
sword-salve1647
powder of sympathy1658
sympathetic powder1661
1661 J. Glanvill Vanity of Dogmatizing xix. 182 To conferr at the distance of the Indies by Sympathetick conveyances, may be as usual to future times, as to us in a litterary correspondence.
1664 S. Butler Hudibras: Second Pt. ii. iii. 152 He would..Cure Warts and Corns, with application Of Med'cines, to th' Imagination... And fire a Mine in China, here With Sympathetick Gunpowder.
1668 G. Hartman tr. K. Digby Choice Receipts 45 A Sympathetick cure for the Tooth-ach.—With an Iron-nail raise and cut the Gum from about the Teeth, till it bleed, and that some of the blood stick upon the nail; then drive it into a woodden beam up to the head: After this is done, you never shall have the tooth-ach in all your life.
1669 Digby's 2 Treat. (rev. ed.) (title page) Of the sympathetick powder. A discourse.
1713 J. Addison in Guardian 28 July 2/1 The Friend..saw his own Sympathetick Needle moving of it self to every Letter which that of his Correspondent pointed at.
1768 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued I. ii. xix. 32 Those sympathetic cures spoken of by Sir Kenelm Digby, who tells you that wounds have been healed by applying salves and plaisters to the instrument that made them.
1804 A. L. Barbauld Life Richardson in S. Richardson Corr. I. 12 In those times talismans and wounds cured by sympathetic powder..were seriously credited.
1905 E. Clodd Animism §13. 66 The numerous practices which come under the head of ‘sympathetic magic’, or the imitation of a cause to produce a desired effect.
b. sympathetic ink n. a name for various colourless liquid compositions used as ink, the writing with which remains invisible until the colour is developed by the application of heat or some chemical reagent. Also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sight and vision > invisibility > [noun] > thing or person > ink
sympathetic ink1721
society > communication > writing > writing materials > ink > [noun] > invisible ink
invisible ink1684
sympathetic ink1721
secret ink1852
1721 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. Sympathetick Inks, are such as can be made to appear or disappear, by the Application of something that seems to work by Sympathy.
1796 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 86 333 The phænomena which heat produces on the solution of cobalt in muriatic or nitro-muriatic acid, called sympathetic ink.
1822 T. Webster Imison's Elem. Sci. & Art (new ed.) II. 309 Make a drawing representing a Winter scene in which the trees appear void of leaves, and..put the leaves on with this sympathetic ink.
1848 A. H. tr. J. P. F. Richter Levana Author's Pref. p. xiii Like sympathetic ink, it becomes as quickly invisible as visible.
1867 T. Carlyle Reminisc. (1881) I. 158 All written in us already..in sympathetic ink.
1907 F. P. Verney & M. M. Verney Mem. Verney Family 17th Cent. (ed. 2 reissued) I. 297 He writes topsy-turvy in sympathetic ink, between the lines of a letter ostensibly full of public news.
c. Physiology and Pathology. Produced by ‘sympathy’ (see sympathy n. 1b): applied to a condition, action, or disorder induced in a person, or in an organ or part of the body, by a similar or corresponding one in another.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > types > [adjective] > sympathetic
sympathetic1728
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. Sympathetic, is particularly applied to all Diseases which have two Causes; the one remote, the other near. In which Sense, the Word is opposed to Idiopathetic.
1774 O. Goldsmith Hist. Earth III. 92 He had only to gape or yawn, and the professor instantly caught the sympathetic affection.
1804 J. Abernethy Surg. Observ. 22 Perhaps these vessels undergo a kind of sympathetic enlargement.
1849 H. M. Noad Lect. Electr. (ed. 3) 486 The action of Electricity on the muscles and nerves produces two distinct kinds of contractions; the first, which he [sc. Marianini] calls idiopathic, are the result of the immediate action of the current on the muscles; and the second, which he calls sympathetic, arise from the action of Electricity on the nerves which preside over the motions of the muscles.
1876 T. Bryant Pract. Surg. (ed. 2) I. viii. 319 Sympathetic ophthalmia is..a peculiar form of inflammation..in one eye in consequence of morbid changes..in the other.
d. Anatomy. Designating one of the two great nerve-systems in vertebrates (the other being the cerebro-spinal), consisting of a double chain of ganglia, with connecting fibres, along the vertebral column, giving off branches and plexuses which supply the viscera and blood vessels and maintain relations between their various activities; belonging to or forming part of this system. Also applied to a similar set of nerves supplying the viscera in some invertebrates.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > nervous system > [adjective] > specific
sympathetic1771
sympathic1836
association area1880
autonomic1898
parasympathetic1905
autonomous1908
thoracolumbar1918
sympathico-adrenal1928
neuroeffector1935
sympatho-adrenal1965
1771 J. Johnstone in Philos. Trans. 1770 (Royal Soc.) 60 35 The intercostal, or as they are otherwise called, the great sympathetic nerves.
1830 R. Knox tr. P. A. Béclard Elements Gen. Anat. 337 The particular action of the heart..is directly under the influence of the sympathetic nerve;..digestion, under the combined influence of the par vagum and sympathetic nerve.
1873 St. G. Mivart Lessons Elem. Anat. ix. 403 The sympathetic system is made up of..small nerves and ganglia closely connected with the arteries and the viscera.
1880 H. C. Bastian Brain 46 The ‘sympathetic’ or visceral ganglia of the Frog.
1888 G. Rolleston & W. H. Jackson Forms Animal Life (ed. 2) 149 The respiratory sympathetic system [in the Sphinx-larva].
e. Physics. Used in reference to sounds produced by responsive vibrations induced in one body by transmission of vibrations from another. Also spec. in Music, sympathetic strings: (see quot. 1960).
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > science of sound > vibration > [adjective] > responding to vibration
sympathetic1832
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical instrument > stringed instruments > [noun] > parts generally > string > types of
wirea1387
false string1597
unison1603
unison string1633
drone1793
music wire1823
silver string1876
sympathetic strings1888
1832 D. Brewster Lett. Nat. Magic viii. 182 The subdivision of the string, and consequently the production of harmonic sounds, may be effected..by means of a sympathetic action conveyed by the air.
1836 M. Somerville Connex. Physical Sci. (ed. 3) Introd. 2 Oscillations, which correspond in their periods with the cause producing them, like sympathetic notes in music.
1884 F. Niecks Conc. Dict. Mus. Terms (at cited word) Viola d'amore, a bow stringed instrument a little longer than the viola, with seven (sometimes fewer) catgut strings about the fingerboard, and seven sympathetic wire strings below it.
1888 A. J. Hipkins Mus. Instruments 53 In the beautifully carved and inlaid instrument here drawn, a perfect viola d'amore in form.., the sympathetic strings are absent.
1898 J. Stainer Stainer & Barrett's Dict. Musical Terms (rev. ed.) 360/2 The player controls all this wealth of sympathetic vibration with the damper pedal.
1908 L. J. De Bekker Stokes' Encycl. Mus. & Musicians 706/2 The sympathetic strings give a beautiful effect.
1928 E. Blom Romance of Piano x. 178 In the treble, the sympathetic strings of the Blüthnor piano are tuned in unison with the ordinary strings.
1940 C. Sachs Hist. Mus. Instruments xvi. 365 Sympathetic strings had come to England from the Near East, apparently in the sixteenth century. Praetorius related that the English used sympathetic viol strings.
1960 H. Hayward Connoisseur's Handbk. Antique Collecting 297/2 Viola d'amore, a musical instrument..notable for its system of ‘sympathetic’ strings... Although out of reach of the bow and fingers these strings vibrate freely in sympathy with the notes played and produce a peculiarly ethereal effect.
1966 Melody Maker 7 May 10 The sympathetic strings [in a sitar] vibrate when the main strings are played, giving an answering drone.
1976 Early Music 4 303 This viol still bore twelve wrestpins in the end block which would have originally carried sympathetic strings added in the 18th century.
1976 Early Music 4 305 A viola bastarde..with six sympathetic strings beneath the six bowed strings.
2.
a. †Agreeing, harmonious, befitting, consonant, accordant (obsolete); according with one's feelings or inclinations, congenial. (Now only as coloured by or transferred from 3.)
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > order > agreement, harmony, or congruity > [adjective]
samtalec1175
samentalea1300
accordingc1300
accordantc1350
covenablec1384
concordable1393
accorda1413
suant1418
consonant1489
convenablea1500
concordant1512
semblable1513
convenient1526
modulatec1530
harmonical1531
harmoniacal1536
agreeable1540
concurrent1542
suitable1568
concinne1569
harmonial1569
sympathical1570
tunable1573
coherenta1575
conspiring1576
well-consenting1579
well-consorted1583
congruous1599
high-tuned1603
symbolizing1611
unjarring1620
concording1627
congruenta1637
harmonious1638
friendlya1641
unclashing1642
complying1646
symphoniacal1650
consistent1651
consentaneous1652
consentivea1657
symbolical1667
concordiousa1670
sympathetic1673
congenerous1677
symbolizant1685
congenial1693
symphonious1743
harmonic1756
concentual1782
undiscordant1819
concordial1822
attuned1833
connate1836
sympathetical1848
concentuous1850
consenting1858
consilient1867
tuned in1958
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > fellow feeling > [adjective] > sympathetic > according with one's own feelings
connate1641
consocial1657
sympathetic1673
congenial1770
elementary1776
sympathetical1848
1673 Bp. S. Parker Reproof Rehearsal Transprosed 471 Thou thyself instead of coarse drugget shalt wear sympathetick silk.
1793 W. Wordsworth Evening Walk 316 Now o'er the soothed accordant heart we feel A sympathetic twilight slowly steal.
1875 H. James Transatlantic Sketches 291 My imagination..refused to project into the dark old town and upon the yellow hills that sympathetic glow which forms half the substance of our genial impressions.
1910 Hirth in Encycl. Brit. VI. 191/2 That natural philosophy of the ‘male and female principles’, according to which all good things and qualities were held to be male, while their less sympathetic opposites were female.
b. Tending to elicit sympathy (senses A. 3b, A. 1d) or to induce a feeling of rapport; also loosely, pleasant, likeable. Cf. sympathique adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > quality of being pleasant or pleasurable > [adjective]
winsomea900
sweetc900
likingeOE
i-quemec950
lieflyOE
winlyOE
hereOE
thankfulc1000
merryOE
queemc1175
beina1200
willea1200
leesomec1200
savouryc1225
estea1250
i-wilc1275
winc1275
welcomea1300
doucea1350
well-pleasingc1350
acceptablea1382
pleasablea1382
pleasanta1382
pleaseda1382
acceptedc1384
amiablec1384
well-likinga1387
queemfulc1390
flattering1393
pleasinga1398
well-queeminga1400
comelyc1400
farrandc1400
greable1401
goodlyc1405
amicable?a1425
placablec1429
amene1433
winful1438
listyc1440
dulcet1445
agreeablec1450
favourousc1485
sweetly?a1500
pleasureful?c1502
dulcea1513
grate1523
prettya1529
plausible1541
jolly1549
dulcoratec1550
toothsome1551
pleasurable1557
tickling1558
suavec1560
amenous1567
odoriferous?1575
perfumed1580
glada1586
tickle1593
pleasurous1595
favoursome1601
dulcean1606
gratifying1611
Hyblaean1614
gratulatea1616
arrident1616
solacefula1618
pleasantable1619
placid1628
contentsome1632
sapid1640
canny1643
gustful1647
peramene1657
pergrateful1657
tastefula1659
complacent1660
placentiousa1661
gratifactorya1665
bland1667
suavious1669
palatable1683
placent1683
complaisant1710
nice1747
tasty1796
sweetsome1799
titbit1820
connate1836
cunning1843
mooi1850
gemütlich1852
sympathique1859
congenial1878
sympathetic1900
sipid1908
onkus1910
sympathisch1911
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > fellow feeling > [adjective] > eliciting sympathy
sympathetic1900
1900 Beerbohm in Sat. Rev. 10 Mar. 295/2 The true Don Juan..is..not a ‘sympathetic’ part.
1926 H. W. Fowler Dict. Mod. Eng. Usage 590/2 Macbeth..is not made sympathetic, however adequately his crime may be explained & palliated, by being the victim of a hallucination.
1965 Listener 23 Dec. 1045/1 Being a lover of the south, I personally found it [sc. a novel] more sympathetic.
1976 A. Eden Another World iv. 54 It was not a sympathetic house and the furnishing and pictures were ugly.
3.
a. Feeling or susceptible of sympathy; sharing or affected by the feelings of another or others; having a fellow-feeling; sympathizing, compassionate. (With various shades of meaning: cf. sympathy n. 3.)
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > compassion > [adjective] > characterized by sympathy > feeling sympathy
compatient1382
compatible1490
compassionatea1631
sympathizing1684
sympathetica1718
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > fellow feeling > [adjective] > sympathetic > specifically of persons
softlOE
sympathetica1718
a1718 M. Prior Epil. to Lucius 29 Your Sympathetic Hearts She hopes to move.
1764 O. Goldsmith Traveller 3 He, whose sympathetic mind Exults in all the good of all mankind.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. I. ii. v. 62 Beyond the Atlantic,..Democracy,..is struggling for life and victory. A sympathetic France rejoices over the Rights of Man.
1856 E. B. Browning Aurora Leigh ii. 50 Your quick-breathed hearts, So sympathetic to the personal pang.
1867 C. Dickens Let. 6 Mar. (1999) XI. 327 An unusually tender and sympathetic audience.
1875 J. P. Hopps Princ. Relig. (1878) xvi. 50 You have faith in a friend..when you know he is unselfish, and truthful, and sympathetic.
b. Relating to, of the nature of, characterized by, arising from, or expressive of sympathy or fellow-feeling. (With various shades of meaning as in A. 2a) sympathetic strike, a strike by workers in support of the action of strikers in another union, industry, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > compassion > [adjective] > characterized by sympathy
interested1665
sympathetic1684
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > fellow feeling > [adjective] > sympathetic
fellow-feeling1594
sympathetic1684
sympathizing1684
social1726
1684 Earl of Roscommon Ess. Translated Verse 7 United by this Sympathetick Bond, You grow Familiar, Intimate and Fond.
1757 T. Gray Ode I iii. i, in Odes 10 Thine too these golden keys,..This can unlock the gates of Joy;..that..ope the sacred source of sympathetic Tears.
1782 F. Burney Cecilia III. v. i. 4 A look of sympathetic concern from Cecilia.
1813 W. Scott Rokeby v. 223 For cold reserve had lost its power, In sorrow's sympathetic hour.
1853 C. Brontë Villette II. xix. 51 The sympathetic faculty was not prominent in him: to feel, and to seize quickly another's feelings, are separate properties.
1853 J. Martineau Stud. Christianity (1858) 230 Thought, conscience, admiration in the human mind were..the sympathetic response of our common intellect, standing in front of Nature, to the kindred life of the Divine intellect behind Nature.
1901 Daily Chron. 7 Aug. 6/2 The head of the Coal Miners' Union is opposed to sympathetic strikes.
1906 Lit. World 15 Nov. 520/1 Professor Dowden's article on Henrik Ibsen..is sympathetic, but critical as well.
1913 in J. O'Connor Hist. Ireland 1798–1924 (1925) II. xvii. 192 They followed by a somewhat lame conclusion that the ‘sympathetic strike was being met with the sympathetic lock-out.’
1958 Times Rev. Industry Aug. 7/2 The merest murmur of the words ‘sympathetic strike’ will command the dockers' attention.
B. n.
1. Anatomy. Short for sympathetic nerve or system: see A. 1d above.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > nervous system > [noun] > specific
sympathetic1808
central nervous system1826
reflex arc1833
projection system1872
autonomic1908
parasympathetic1916
C.N.S.1932
neuroeffector1937
1808 J. Barclay Muscular Motions 254 These branches, proceeding from the trunks of the eighth pair, par vagum, or middle sympathetic, enter the thorax.
1826 W. Kirby & W. Spence Introd. Entomol. IV. xxxvii. 20 The ganglions of the great sympathetics.
1871 Allbutt in Brit. & For. Med.-Chirurg. Rev. XLVIII. 51 We all know that a galvanized sympathetic causes contractions of blood-vessels.
1872 T. H. Huxley Lessons Elem. Physiol. (ed. 6) vi. 145 The combined blushing and sweating which takes place when the sympathetic in the neck is divided.
2.
a. A person affected by ‘sympathy’ (sympathy n. 1b); one who is susceptible or sensitive to hypnotic or similar influence.
ΚΠ
1888 C. L. Norton in N. Amer. Rev. June 705 Favorable conditions may make any one hypnotic to some extent... Naturally enough a company of sympathetics may be similarly influenced.
b. A sympathetic person, sympathizer. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > compassion > [noun] > sympathy > sympathetic person(s)
condoler1727
sympathetic1906
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > fellow feeling > [noun] > sympathetic person
fellow-feeler1581
consympathite1616
sympathetic1906
1906 Westm. Gaz. 22 Sept. 6/2 The unburdenings to a sympathetic of the griefs which he too has felt and can understand.
Derivatives
sympaˈtheticism n. /-sɪz(ə)m/ sympathetic tendency, susceptibility to sympathy (used disparagingly).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > sentimentality > [noun]
sentiment1747
sentimentality1770
mawkishness1796
sensiblerie1815
sentimentalism1818
sloppiness1828
morbidezza1833
milk-and-wateriness1834
maudlin1838
soothing syrup1839
emotionalism1846
stickiness1864
slop1866
mushiness1868
saccharinity1868
sympatheticism1884
hearts and flowers1911
lovey-doveyness1923
schmaltz1934
goop1950
goo1951
schmaltziness1953
gloop1957
cheesiness1963
soupiness1963
soft-centredness1967
soppiness1974
1884 W. D. Howells Rise Silas Lapham 289 Penelope..received her visitors with a piteous distraction, which could not fail of touching Bromfield Corey's Italianised sympatheticism.
ˌsympatheˈticity n. /-ˈtɪsɪtɪ/ = sympatheticness n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > aspects of emotion > capacity for emotion > fellow feeling > [noun] > quality of being sympathetic
sympatheticity1893
1893 Graphic 25 Mar. 318/1 A good cook cannot teach you how to make the pasty..by word of mouth. She may show you something, but the secret lies in your handling, in a sort of sympatheticity.
sympaˈtheticness n. the quality of being sympathetic.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > compassion > [noun] > sympathy > quality of
condolency1645
sympatheticness1891
1891 Murray's Mag. Mar. 316 The deep vein of tenderness, of womanly sympatheticness.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1919; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.n.1661- hemiablepsia
- hemiacetal
- hemiacetals
- hemialbumin
- hemialbumose
- hemialgia
- hemiamb
- hemiamblyopia
- hemiamblyopic
- hemiambous
- hemianaesthesia
- hemianaesthesic
- hemianalgesia
- hemianatropous
- hemiangiocarpic
- hemiangiocarpous
- hemianopia
- hemianopic
- hemianopsia
- hemiataxy
- hemiatrophy
- hemiblastula
- hemibranch
- hemibranchiate
- hemibromhydrin