antedating "empathy"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED: 1904.

1895 E. L. Hinman in_The Philosophical Review_ IV (Nov.) 673: In
psychophysics we experience directly the psychical side of the energy
factors. For the capacity factor of psychophysical energy the term 'empathy'
is proposed. Empathy is then a physical quantity, a physiological brain
function. ...Increase of empathy indicates pleasure; decrease, pain.
Hinman is summarizing an article in German by K. Lasswitz. The denotation of
"empathy" seems pretty clearly to differ from its later use.

When accurately dated, the pre-1895 GB exx. I've looked at are errors for
"sympathy."  A 1909 ex, in OED suggests that at least one writer thought he
was coining the term at that time.

OED marks the word "Psychol. and Aesthetics."  No more.

JL

--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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