Medlidenhed consists of three parts: med which means 'co-' or 'with'; lide which is the infinitive form of the verb “to suffer”, and hed, a suffix which turns an adjective into a noun (like -ness in English). Medlidenhed is a Nordic relative to the word ‘compassion’ (which is used in various forms in languages including English, French and Italian) in the sense that ‘compassion’ comes from the Latin com ('with', 'together') and pati ('to suffer', compare to for example 'The Passion' which in Christianity refers to the crucifixion and final period of the life of Jesus). But because at lide is a modern word that – unlike 'passion' – is used to talk about suffering in everyday speech, medlidenhed perhaps comes across as more blunt and literal than its English equivalent.