fellow feeling
fellow feeling (noun phrase)
/ˌfɛloʊ ˈfiːlɪŋ/
Synopsis
The idiom “fellow feeling” describes a shared sense of sympathy or understanding between people with similar experiences. It first took shape in early modern England and entered print in the early 1600s, becoming a concise way to express natural human compassion and emotional connection.
Meanings
- A warm sense of sympathy or compassion for someone because you understand their situation.
- A shared bond or mutual understanding between people with similar experiences.
- A friendly feeling that arises from having something in common.
Synonyms: sympathy; empathy; compassion; sense of fellowship; shared understanding.
Example Sentences
- When she saw her coworker struggling with the same problem she once faced, she felt fellow feeling and offered help.
- The volunteers quickly formed a fellow feeling because they all cared deeply about the same cause.
- After talking for hours about their similar backgrounds, a natural fellow feeling developed between them.
Origin and History
Early Conceptual Foundation
The expression “fellow feeling” emerged in early modern English as writers sought a clear vernacular way to express the idea of shared emotion or mutual sympathy. The concept itself was older, inherited from classical discussions of communal emotion, but English authors began forming native phrases to capture this sense of emotional participation.
Intellectual Development
A major theory about its development holds that English scholars, translating classical ethical thought into everyday language, began using “fellow feeling” to describe sympathy rooted in shared human experience. At the same time, social and religious writers used the phrase to explain practical compassion within families, parishes, and communities. This blend of philosophical and social usage helped solidify its meaning.
Place of Origin
All early evidence shows that “fellow feeling” first took shape in England. Its earliest uses appear in English devotional, moral, and philosophical writings, suggesting that the phrase is a native English formation rather than a borrowing from another European language.
Earliest Printed Record
The earliest readily verifiable printed example appears in Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy (Oxford, 1621). Burton employs the phrase in a sentence that clearly illustrates its meaning:
“I would help others, out of a fellow-feeling.”
While Burton completed the work in late 1620, the first edition is dated 1621, and no exact day of publication survives in the record. This printed instance remains the earliest accessible and fully citable example.
Earlier Tract Evidence
Some earlier sixteenth-century English polemical writings show signs of the same phrase or forms close to it, especially in religious discussions stressing compassion among believers. These uses suggest that “fellow feeling” circulated in English discourse prior to 1621, even though those fragments appear in manuscripts and rare tracts rather than widely preserved printed books.
Growth and Influence
After entering print, “fellow feeling” quickly became a standard expression in discussions of sympathy, emotional response, and social duty. Philosophers used it to describe moral sentiment, religious writers applied it to Christian compassion, and medical thinkers used it to explain shared emotional reactions. Its versatility helped cement it as a permanent part of English vocabulary.
Variants
- fellow-feeling
- fellow feelings
- have fellow feeling for (verb phrase pattern)
Share your opinions