commiserate

Commiserate is a verb meaning to express or feel sympathy or pity for someone who is suffering or in a difficult situation; to share in another's misfortune emotionally. It is commonly used in phrases such as commiserate with someone on/over something. The noun form is commiseration; the adjective is commiserative.

Origin: from late Latin commiserari, from com- 'together' + miser 'wretched', via Old French comiserer, entering English in the early modern period.

Usage: People commonly use commiserate to acknowledge another's distress and offer empathetic solidarity, rather than to praise or boast of one’s own experiences. It is generally not used to describe personal misfortune in the first person outside of a formal context, and it is not equivalent to pity or condolence, though it can accompany both. Common collocations include commiserate with you on/over, share in your sorrow, or express condolences.

Comparison: Commiserate emphasizes shared feeling of sorrow. Empathize and sympathize are related but subtly different: empathize focuses on understanding the other’s feelings from their perspective; sympathize emphasizes sharing in the feelings, sometimes more abstractly. Condole and console are more formal or direct expressions of consolation rather than shared feeling.

See also: sympathy, empathy, condolence, consolation.