Modern English pity and Middle English pite

Yoshiko Asaka

The origin of modern English pity goes back, through Old French, to Latin pietas, meaning ‘piety’, which was extended in late Latin to include ‘compassion’. Pietas was taken into Old French in two forms, pitie and piete. Middle English adopted both without differentiating them, in form or in meaning. Between the concepts of ‘pity’ and ‘piety’, there is thus a rich connection, with the former being a means of evoking piety. The meaning of ME pite was enriched in the ME period by the pitiful images of Christianity, the pitying kings from historical narratives and epic romances, and by the pity expected of a mistress in love poems. In the paper, various meanings of pity are examined, according to different patterns of evocation, in which the pitiable are: 1) the religiously persecuted, the poor, helpless infants or the weak; 2) pleading queens or noble women in their intercessionary appeals; 3) male suitors in love poems. The feeling evoked is almost identical with religious pathos, regal mercy and the emotion of love in each case. This study suggests that the modern use of pity reflects some emotional responses to ‘the pitiable’ of the ME period.