INTUITION
Etymology
The word entered English in the late 15th century.
- Latin origin: intuitio ("a looking at"), from the verb intueri ("to look at, consider, contemplate").
- Intueri breaks down as:
- in- ("into, at, upon")
- tueri ("to look at, watch, guard, protect")
- The literal sense was "knowledge obtained by looking within" or "immediate perception."
By the mid-17th century in English, it had acquired its modern meaning of non-rational, immediate understanding.
EMPATHY
Etymology
The word empathy is relatively modern in English.
- First appeared in English around 1909–1912.
- Coined as a translation of the German word Einfühlung (“feeling into”), used in psychology and aesthetics by theorists like Theodor Lipps.
- From Ancient Greek:
- em- (variant of en-) = “in, within, into”
- pathos = “feeling, emotion, suffering, passion”
Literal meaning: “feeling into” or “in-feeling.”
The Greek pathos is the same root found in:
- Sympathy (“feeling together/with”)
- Apopathy (“without feeling”)
- Telepathy, etc.