sympathize

Etymology

From French sympathiser. Displaced native Old English efnþrōwian (literally “to suffer with or together”).

verb

1. (intransitive) To have, show or express sympathy; to be affected by feelings similar to those of another, in consequence of knowing the person to be thus affected.
2. (intransitive) To support, favour, have sympathy (with a political cause or movement, a side in a conflict / in an action).
   ‘[…] who is to hunt up my witnesses? All of them are sailors, drafted off to other ships, except those whose evidence would go for very little, as they took part, or sympathised in the affair. […]’ 1855, Elizabeth Gaskell, chapter 31, in North and South
   Whether one sympathises with the agitation for female suffrage or not one has to admit that its promoters showed tireless energy and considerable enterprise in devising and putting into action new methods for accomplishing their ends. […] 1919, Saki, “The Threat”, in The Toys of Peace and Other Papers, London: John Lane, page 150
3. (transitive) To say in an expression of sympathy.
   “How much he slapped my sons—you should see their swollen faces, Panditji,” said Dukhi. […] 1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 3, in A Fine Balance, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, page 133
4. (intransitive) To have a common feeling, as of bodily pleasure or pain.
   […] the mind will sympathize so much with the anguish and debility of the body, that it will be […] too distracted to fix itself in meditation. 1814, J. S. Buckminster, Sermons, Boston, Sermon 3, p. 55
5. (transitive, obsolete) To share (a feeling or experience).
6. (intransitive) To agree; to be in accord; to harmonize.
   Green, for example, is a pleasing Colour, which may come from a blue and a yellow mix’d together, and by consequence blue and yellow are two Colours which sympathize: 1695, Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica. The Art of Painting, London: W. Rogers, page 175