Is there a word for viewing sorrow?
I seem to recall one, but for the life of me, am unable to remember what it is.
Empathy is the ability to emotionally relate, so it is not that one.
Sympathy is basically the same thing; yet both words are an emotional connection.
I am looking for the word that simply describes the act of viewing sorrow.
Thank you guys.
Sorry I have been a stranger for so long.
Nay, again, Pity is an emotion. I am seeking the word that does describe the act.n Though I do thank you.
Uh?
I get it, pity is not the word you want.
Uh?
I get it, pity is not the word you want.
I am sorry for not being clear. I accidentally said Nay instead of No. I should have just edited the post. I do apologize for the confusion.
Hello AlimaeHP from long time ago. There is a word that comes close to what you might mean, but not directly in connection with the verb 'view'. I doubt if there are single words that express viewing whatsoever anything at all. Commiserate may be a synonym of empathy but more specifically focussed on sorrow, misery. I hope you regained your health and would like to wish all old friends a good december season. But...the lot of them it seems have (or is it has?) left this place for good.
commiserate
v.tr.
To feel or express sorrow or pity for; sympathize with.
v.intr.
To feel or express sympathy: commiserated over their failure.
Alimae, BranShea, nice to hear your fingertaps again ! [warmsmile -e]
Commiserate is very close indeed. The only issue that I do have, is that the word does, yet again, deal with empathy. I am seeking the word that describes the act of viewing or seeing sorrow, and not the actual emotional connection.
Bran, it has been a very long time. Far to long. Sadly that of my health has not improved; nor will it this lifetime. Either way, I am as well as can be expected and finding joy in life.
May your Holiday's find you in joy.
Wofaholicodoc, it is a delight to see your finger-taps in turn. [smiles of warmth]
Commiserate is very close indeed. The only issue that I do have, is that the word does, yet again, deal with empathy. I am seeking the word that describes the act of viewing or seeing sorrow, and not the actual emotional connection.
It's the "amanuensis" function: to see, to register, to note, perhaps to record or to report, but not to sympathize or approve or judge, or indeed to respond in any way. Sorrow or joy or anything else is an independent dimension.
Robert Heinlein embodied it as Anne, the Fair Witness, in Stranger in a Strange Land. Neal Stephenson invoked it tangentially about three-quarters of the way through Anathem. I don't know that there's a single word for it.
Hmm, akin to that of a scribe.
Yes, that is basically what I am looking for.
May hap this does call for a neolexia then. A word that describes the act there in of what the Amanuensis enacts while acting the recorder and or observer.
Bravo, and I do agree Tsuwm; let us not chillax.
Yet in turn let us ideate upon this matter and either locate a word for which is, within the Greek terminology, exactus ["exact or accurate,"] unto what is sought, no matter the linguistic language; or seek to find a simple phrase for which does convey the desired outcome.
Either way, to speak, "He gazed without emotion upon the sadness evident before him..", is not conducive unto the iambic or meter of the poem for which I am attempting to create. Thus the need for disambiguation is most desperately desired.
Well, either that or to disambiguate the sentence, thus bringing understanding with one or two words.
*sighs* May hap I should delegate this poetic dribble unto the heaps of unfinished works within my office.
The English Language is one of the most frustrating and useless languages, within my opinion at the moment, for we do have umpteen words to describe one act, yet none to describe another. It is no wonder that many do look upon us and shake there heads at our audacity of speaking, "We are educated."
I do thank you all for aiding myself in this endeavor.
Commiserate is very close indeed. The only issue that I do have, is that the word does, yet again, deal with empathy. I am seeking the word that describes the act of viewing or seeing sorrow, and not the actual emotional connection.
It's the "amanuensis" function: to see, to register, to note, perhaps to record or to report, but not to sympathize or approve or judge, or indeed to respond in any way. Sorrow or joy or anything else is an independent dimension.
Robert Heinlein embodied it as Anne, the Fair Witness, in Stranger in a Strange Land. Neal Stephenson invoked it tangentially about three-quarters of the way through Anathem. I don't know that there's a single word for it.
Thats the point. There are special expressions and words for watching things and objects s.a. bird spotting, window shopping, but even those are not single words.
All of you survivors, have a very good Christmas Time amd a Happy New Year.
Why can I not ever enact anything simply? Oh well, I do thank you all for listening.
...and a Happy New Year to you and yours, too !
Catholics know this word well, already guilty before getting out of bed. The word is contrition. Acts of contrition must be performed where others can see. Like the Mexicans who crawl on their hands and knees for miles until bloody.
Profiling? They do not have to be performed publicly.