I'm Minyon Fogarty and you can think of me as your friendly guide to the English language.

We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff.

Today, we're going to talk about commiserating with each other, the interesting origin of

the word influenza and a few other disease names, and fun names for a helpful friend.

Hi, Minyon.

This is Pete from Colorado and my friend Anna from Louisiana and I were discussing the word

commiserate the other day.

And we had both used it in the context of really experiencing the same situation or feeling

the pain of somebody that expressed a difficult situation.

So, as we were commiserating about work, we were sharing in that or difficulty together.

But we also recognize that the dictionary definition simply says to sympathize or to

empathize or have pity.

And that gives the impression of being outside of a situation and expressing sympathy or sorrow

for what they're experiencing.

So, are we using it incorrectly?

And is there a different word that we should be using?

Because you could simply say, oh, I relate to you, but that doesn't have the same connotation.

For me, commiserate has always had that connotation of sharing in it with that person.

And I think I've used it in the context of like, oh, yeah, we sat, we drank beer and commiserated

about the week.

And I don't know that we're using it correctly, so I would love to hear your input on that.

Thanks so much.

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