Other forms: pitied, pities, pitying
Pity is the sadness you feel for someone worse off than you. A stray dog standing in the rain, a family who lost everything in a fire, an old rival who ended up with nothing.
There is distance in it, and that is the thing to watch, because pity looks down a little, which is why nobody wants to be pitied and why I do not want your pity turns up in every second film. Sympathy and compassion stand level with the person; pity does not always. The commonest everyday use has nothing to do with sorrow at all, since a pity means a shame: what a pity, it's a pity you can't come, more's the pity. You can also take pity on someone, which means acting rather than only feeling, as when she took pity on him and drove him home. As a verb, I pity anyone driving in this weather is friendlier than it looks.
1nounpitySadness felt for someone else's suffering or bad luck.
“He felt a rush of pity for the boy standing alone at the gate.”
synonyms: compassion, sympathy
2nounshameSomething unlucky or disappointing.
“It's a pity the weather turned, because the garden looked lovely.”
synonyms: shame
3verbfeelTo feel pity for someone.
“I pity anyone who has to drive home in this.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Pity came through Old French from Latin pietās, the word for duty and devotion, which also gave English piety and Italian pietà, the image of Mary holding the dead Christ. In Latin the feeling was owed to gods and parents. In French it softened into feeling for anyone who suffers.
Proto-Indo-European
*pewH-
Latin
pietās
Old French
pitet
Anglo-Norman
pité
Middle English
pitye
English, today
pity
From Middle English pitye, pitie, pittye, pitee, pite, from Anglo-Norman pité, pittee etc., from Old French pitet, pitié, from Latin pietās. See also the doublets a doublet of pietà and piety.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA