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Vicarious vs Empathetic - What's the difference?

vicarious | empathetic |

As adjectives the difference between vicarious and empathetic

is that vicarious is experienced or gained by the loss or to the consequence of another, such as through watching or reading while empathetic is showing empathy for others, and recognizing their feelings etc; empathic.

vicarious

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Experienced or gained by the loss or to the consequence of another, such as through watching or reading.
  • People experience vicarious pleasures through watching television.
  • Done on behalf of others
  • The concept of vicarious atonement, that one person can atone for the sins of another, is found in many religions.

    Quotations

    {{timeline, 1800s=1886, 1900s=1900 1920}} * 1886 — ch 10 *: The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in the hands of Edward Hyde, they soon began to turn toward the monstrous. When I would come back from these excursions, I was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity. * 1900 — ch 26 *: As time went on, the cruel custom was so far mitigated that a ram was accepted as a vicarious sacrifice in room of the royal victim. * 1920 — ch III *: In these, however, he had not much time to indulge, for a footman, still decked in the trappings of vicarious grief, opened the door with the most startling promptitude, and he was ushered upstairs into a small but richly furnished room.

    Derived terms

    * vicarious atonement * vicarious learning * vicarious liability * vicarious reinforcement

    empathetic

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Showing empathy for others, and recognizing their feelings etc; empathic