Meaning

noun a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering

noun the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it

originFrom Middle English compassioun, compassion, from Old French compassion, from Ecclesiastical Latin compassio (“sympathy”), from Latin compati, past participle compassus (“to suffer together with”), from com- (“together”) + pati (“to suffer”); see passion. By surface analysis, com- + passion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0