Sympathy Vs Empathy:
Sympathy and empathy are separate terms with some very important distinctions. Sympathy and empathy are both acts of feeling, but with sympathy you feel for the person; you’re sorry for them or pity them, but you don’t specifically understand what they’re feeling. Sometimes we’re left with little choice but to feel sympathetic because we really can’t understand the plight or predicament of someone else. It takes imagination, work, or possibly a similar experience to get to empathy.
Sympathy and empathy are separate terms with some very important distinctions. Sympathy and empathy are both acts of feeling, but with sympathy you feel for the person; you’re sorry for them or pity them, but you don’t specifically understand what they’re feeling. Sometimes we’re left with little choice but to feel sympathetic because we really can’t understand the plight or predicament of someone else. It takes imagination, work, or possibly a similar experience to get to empathy.
Empathy
can best be described as feeling with the person. Notice the
distinction between for and with. To an extent you are placing yourself
in that person’s place, have a good sense of what they feel, and
understand their feelings to a degree. It may be impossible to be fully
empathetic because each individual's reactions, thoughts and feelings
to tragedy are going to be unique. Yet the idea of empathy implies a
much more active process. Instead of feeling sorry for, you’re sorry
with and have clothed yourself in the mantle of someone else’s emotional
reactions.
EXAMPLES: We felt sympathy for the team members who tried hard but were not appreciated. We felt empathy for children with asthma because we had asthma as a child, and understand their pain.
Revenge Vs Avenge:
Avenge is a verb. To avenge is to punish a wrongdoing with the intent of seeing justice done. Revenge can be used as a noun or a verb. It is more personal, less concerned with justice and more about retaliation by inflicting harm.
Avenge and revenge both imply to inflict pain or harm in return for pain or harm inflicted on oneself or those persons or causes to which one feels loyalty. The two words were formerly interchangeable, but have been differentiated until they now convey widely diverse ideas. Avenge is now restricted to inflicting punishment as an act of retributive justice or as a vindication of propriety, example: to avenge a murder by bringing the criminal to trial. Revenge implies inflicting pain or harm to retaliate for real or fancied wrongs; a reflexive pronoun is often used with this verb, example: Iago wished to revenge himself upon Othello.
Deprecate Vs Depreciate:
The verb deprecate means to deplore, disparage, express disapproval of something.
The verb depreciate means to drop in value or to lower in estimation or esteem.
Both verbs can also mean belittle.
To depreciate means to drop in value. If you depreciate a business asset for income tax purposes, you deduct a portion of its original cost from your income over a period of several years. Depreciate also means to undervalue or speak disparagingly of. To deprecate means to censure or deplore. Self-deprecating and self-depreciating both mean self-belittling. Some commentators think that self-depreciating is the more apt term for this activity, but self-deprecating has far more currency in Canadian English. Either word is acceptable.
In essence depreciate means 'reduce in price or value.' This is the meaning it still expresses in the domain of business and finance, as when assets are depreciated by 10 percent. But the word can take on the more figurative meaning of 'represent as having little value, belittle,' and it then comes close to the extended meaning of deprecate. Deprecate is essentially 'argue against,' but by extension means 'disparage,' as in The movie star deprecated his acting talent.
To deprecate something is to condemn it as wrong in itself: We deprecate the use of public money for nonessential purposes. To depreciate something is to belittle or disparage it, even though it may not be wrong or bad in itself: They were constantly depreciating our attempts to speak Italian. This use is increasingly rare. Admittedly, self-deprecate goes a long way toward blurring the distinction, for it means "belittle yourself," not "condemn yourself"; in this sense it is well established, but it may be best regarded as the exception rather than the rule. Both words have more common synonyms: condemn, deplore, and disapprove of for deprecate, and belittle, disparage, and decry for depreciate. Depreciate is also commonly used intransitively (without an object), in financial contexts, to mean "lose value": The value of the yen has depreciated 20 percent in real terms.
EXAMPLES: We felt sympathy for the team members who tried hard but were not appreciated. We felt empathy for children with asthma because we had asthma as a child, and understand their pain.
Revenge Vs Avenge:
Avenge is a verb. To avenge is to punish a wrongdoing with the intent of seeing justice done. Revenge can be used as a noun or a verb. It is more personal, less concerned with justice and more about retaliation by inflicting harm.
Avenge and revenge both imply to inflict pain or harm in return for pain or harm inflicted on oneself or those persons or causes to which one feels loyalty. The two words were formerly interchangeable, but have been differentiated until they now convey widely diverse ideas. Avenge is now restricted to inflicting punishment as an act of retributive justice or as a vindication of propriety, example: to avenge a murder by bringing the criminal to trial. Revenge implies inflicting pain or harm to retaliate for real or fancied wrongs; a reflexive pronoun is often used with this verb, example: Iago wished to revenge himself upon Othello.
Deprecate Vs Depreciate:
The verb deprecate means to deplore, disparage, express disapproval of something.
The verb depreciate means to drop in value or to lower in estimation or esteem.
Both verbs can also mean belittle.
To depreciate means to drop in value. If you depreciate a business asset for income tax purposes, you deduct a portion of its original cost from your income over a period of several years. Depreciate also means to undervalue or speak disparagingly of. To deprecate means to censure or deplore. Self-deprecating and self-depreciating both mean self-belittling. Some commentators think that self-depreciating is the more apt term for this activity, but self-deprecating has far more currency in Canadian English. Either word is acceptable.
In essence depreciate means 'reduce in price or value.' This is the meaning it still expresses in the domain of business and finance, as when assets are depreciated by 10 percent. But the word can take on the more figurative meaning of 'represent as having little value, belittle,' and it then comes close to the extended meaning of deprecate. Deprecate is essentially 'argue against,' but by extension means 'disparage,' as in The movie star deprecated his acting talent.
To deprecate something is to condemn it as wrong in itself: We deprecate the use of public money for nonessential purposes. To depreciate something is to belittle or disparage it, even though it may not be wrong or bad in itself: They were constantly depreciating our attempts to speak Italian. This use is increasingly rare. Admittedly, self-deprecate goes a long way toward blurring the distinction, for it means "belittle yourself," not "condemn yourself"; in this sense it is well established, but it may be best regarded as the exception rather than the rule. Both words have more common synonyms: condemn, deplore, and disapprove of for deprecate, and belittle, disparage, and decry for depreciate. Depreciate is also commonly used intransitively (without an object), in financial contexts, to mean "lose value": The value of the yen has depreciated 20 percent in real terms.
