Bravo everyone!(As that's a plural, should it be Bravi ;-) [don't answer, I know; a female singer isnt a *soprana, and when she sings well people don't shout *brava.]) I especially like Banderas's "Empathy= the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in their situation?" Empathy is what Keats felt when he saw a sparrow on his windowsill and imagined what it would be like to be a sparrow.
Sadly, the meaning of 'sympathy' has had the edge taken off it by repeated usage, so that people have started to use 'empathize' as somehow reinforcing 'sympathize', and say things like 'I don't just sympathize, I empathize' (which may have several meanings). This confusion may have led to a mixture of contextual usages that sparked off the original post.
b