Compassion is the most beautiful word in the English language

Quoth the OED:

Etymology:  < compassion n., or probably < French compassionner (15th cent. in Littré) to compassionate.

  trans. To have compassion on, to pity. (‘A word scarcely used’, Johnson.)

1594   Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iv. i. 123   Can you heare a goodman grone And not relent, or not compassion him?

1627   Ld. Falkland Hist. Edward II (1680) 72   Shall I..compassion those that do attempt my ruine?

1761   D. Hume Hist. Eng. II. xxxii. 222   The people who compassioned his youth, his virtue and his noble birth.

1873   Argosy 16 35   Dr. Knox compassioned Janet's hard place.

1. Suffering together with another, participation in suffering; fellow-feeling, sympathy. Obs.

1340   Ayenbite (1866) 148   Huanne on leme is zik oþer y-wonded. hou moche zorȝe heþ þe herte and grat compassion y-uelþ.

1398   J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomew de Glanville De Proprietatibus Rerum (1495) v. i. 100   The membres ben so sette togyders that..euery hath compassyon of other.

1561   R. Eden tr. M. Cortes Arte Nauigation Pref.,   Such a mutuall compassion of parte to parte..by one common sence existent in them all.

1625   A. Gil Sacred Philos. iv. 63   That it was onely by a vegetable or animall soule, which suffered by compassion with the body.

 a. The feeling or emotion, when a person is moved by the suffering or distress of another, and by the desire to relieve it; pity that inclines one to spare or to succour. Const. on (of obs.). (The compassion of sense 1 was between equals or fellow-sufferers; this is shown towards a person in distress by one who is free from it, who is, in this respect, his superior.)

c1340   R. Rolle Prose Treat. 36   Þou may thynke of synnes and of wrechidnes of thyne euencristene..with pete and of compassione of thaym.

1535   Bible (Coverdale) Joel ii. 12   The Lorde..is..longe sufferynge & of greate compassion.

a1616   Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 1 (1623) iv. i. 56   Mou'd with compassion of my Countries wracke.

1632   W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. (1682) ix. 386   In Compassion whereof the worthy Gentleman doubled his Wages.

1676   T. Hobbes tr. Homer Iliads i. 23   You on me compassion may show.

1770   ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) II. xxxvi. 56   You have every claim to compassion, that can arise from misery and distress.

1823   R. Southey Hist. Peninsular War I. 352   In compassion to her grief, and in answer to her prayers.

1876   J. B. Mozley Univ. Serm. vii. 148   Compassion..gives the person who feels it pleasure even in the very act of ministering to and succouring pain.

†b. with plural. Obs. or arch.

1526   W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfection iii. sig. YYYiii^v,   All the compassions & mercyes, that thou shewed to the people.

1611   Bible (A.V.) Lament. iii. 22   His compassions faile not.

1787   Whitaker Mary Q. Scots Vind. in H. Campbell Love Lett. Mary Queen of Scots (1824) 263   All the little jealousies of the rival will surely melt away in the compassions of the woman.

 c. to have compassion : to have pity, take pity. So †to take compassion (upon, of) .

1382   Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Heb. x. 34   For whi and to boundun men ȝe hadden compassioun.

c1385   Chaucer Legend Good Women 390 Prol.,   And han of pore folk compassioun.

1483   Caxton tr. Caton C iv,   I haue grete ruthe and compassion on you.

a1593   Marlowe Edward II (1594) sig. H4^v,   Thy hart..Could not but take compassion of my state.

1611   Bible (A.V.) Exod. ii. 6   She had compassion on him.

a1645   W. Browne tr. M. Le Roy Hist. Polexander (1647) ii. i. 164,   I..besought him not so to have compassion of a daughter whom he had made miserable.

1723   B. Mandeville Ess. Charity in Fable Bees (ed. 2) i. 290   Humanity bids us have Compassion with the Sufferings of others.

1841   E. W. Lane tr. Thousand & One Nights I. 104   Have compassion on the mighty whom love hath abased.

 

†3. Sorrowful emotion, sorrow, grief. Obs.

c1340   Cursor M. (Fairf.) 23945 (heading)    Compassioun of our lauedi for þe passioun of hir sone.

1493   Chastysing Goddes Chyldern (de Worde) i. sig. Aij/1,   Teres of compascyon, teres of compunccion, teres of loue, & of deuocyon.

1590   Spenser Faerie Queene i. iii. sig. C2^v,   Her hart gan melt in great compassion, And drizling teares did shed for pure affection.