sympathise

See also: sympathisé

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French sympathiser. By surface analysis, sympathy +‎ -ise.

Verb

sympathise (third-person singular simple present sympathises, present participle sympathising, simple past and past participle sympathised)

1. Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of sympathize.
   • 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 31, in North and South‎^[1]:

     ‘ […] who is to hunt up my witnesses? All of them are sailors, drafted off to other ships, except those whose evidence would go for very little, as they took part, or sympathised in the affair. […] ’

   • [1877], [Daniel Shepherd], “Elective Affinities”, in Saratoga. An Indian Tale of Frontier Life. A True Story of 1787., Philadelphia, Pa.: T[heophilus] B[easley] Peterson and Brothers; […], →OCLC, page 314:

     And yet, though the happiness may be unenduring, what heart, though seared by time and worldly care, can fail to sympathise with those emotions of early life? In after years there are none such. They are the high noon of earthly joy. After them, life goes on decayingly and solemnly to its shadowy sunset.

   • 2017 September 13, Haroon Siddique, “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory hero 'was originally black'”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     Dahl insisted there was no racist intent behind the Oompa Loompas but also said he found himself sympathising with the NAACP.

   • 2020 November 18, Mike Brown tells Paul Stephen, “I wasn't going to let the Mayor down”, in Rail, page 44:

     Brown heavily sympathises with the challenges now being faced by his successor Andy Byford and Mayor Sadiq Khan, to secure a more sustainable funding formula for TfL that is less reliant on farebox income.

Anagrams

• metaphysis, sympathies

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃.pa.tiz/

Verb

sympathise

1. inflection of sympathiser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative