pass-, pati-

(Latin: suffering, feeling; enduring)

incompassionate (adjective), more incompassionate, most incompassionate
Descriptive of a person who lacks pity, sympathy, or understanding: In the story Jane was reading, the old witch was totally incompassionate towards Hans and Gretel who were locked in the cage.
incompatibility (s) (noun), incompatibilities (pl)
1. Uncongeniality; incapability of existing together in harmony: Meg asked for a divorce because of the incompatibility in her marriage with Sam.
2. Contrariness in character; discordancy: Susan wanted to avoid an incompatibility of colors in her living room.
3. That which cannot coexist or be conjoined: Tom was aware of the incompatibility of long hours at work and his family life.
4. The quality of biological substances that interfere with one another physiologically: Dr. Smart said that, because of the incompatibility of the two types of blood, it wasn't possible to use the donors blood in the transfusion for Mrs. Long.
5. In pharmacology the incongruity of drugs in which they interfere with one another chemically or physiologically: Because of the incompatibility of the two medicines, Dr. Thompson said that they could not be mixed or prescribed together.

A little incompatibility is the spice of life, particularly if he has income and she is pattable.

—Ogden Nash
incompatible (adjective), more incompatible, most incompatible
A reference to people or things which are not able to exist in agreement; incongruous, discordant, conflicting, inconsistent: After two years of marriage, Jack and Jill had too many conflicts and decided that they were an incompatible and a mismatched couple and should go their separate ways.

Joe bought a new piece of hardware for his computer, but it didn't work because it was incompatible with his own computer system.

Incapable of living together in harmony.
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Being incompatible is when a man wants a divorce and his wife doesn’t, or when the husband loses his income and the wife her patability.

—Evan Esar

In Genesis (the first book in the Bible) it says that it is not good for a man to be alone, but sometimes it is a great relief.

—John Barrymore
incompatibly (adverb), more incompatibly, most incompatibly
1. Incongruously; inconsistently: The two sisters were incompatibly different from each other although they were twins!
2. The incapability of associating or blending, or of being associated or blended because of inharmoniousness or incongruity: It was incompatibly difficult to get the two computer programs coordinated.
passible (adjective) (not comparable)
Capable of feeling, particulary suffering or pain; subject to sensation: It is said that the soul or spirit of Jesus is passable.
passion (s) (noun), passions (pl)
1. A strong liking or desire for, or devotion to some object, activity, or concept; an extreme, compelling emotion; intense emotional drive or excitement, as shown in the following examples:
  • Great anger, rage, or fury; a crime that is motivated by an extreme emotion, especially sexual jealousy: The crime was committed in a fit of passion, also termed as a crime of passion.
  • Enthusiasm or fondness for; something a person enjoys or loves doing very much: Writing has always been Floyd's passion.
  • Strong love or affection; craze, mania: She spoke with passion about preserving the building.
  • Amorous feelings; strong sexual affection, sexual drive, or desire; love; lust: Stella never felt such passion for anyone except for Max.
2. Latin passion was chiefly a word used in Christian theology; when capitalized, Passion refers especially to the sufferings of Jesus Christ on the Cross (also it often includes His Agony in Gethsemane).

Every civilization is, among other things, an arrangement for domesticating the passions and settling them to do useful work.

—Aldous Huxley

Asthma is a disease that has practically the same symptoms as passion, except that with asthma it lasts longer.

—Anonymous

If we resist our passions, it is more from their weakness than from our strength.

—Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Passions are vices or virtues in their highest powers.

—Johann von Goethe
passional (s) (noun), passionals (pl)
A book depicting the sufferings of the martyrs: The passional is a written document of the four Gospels, in which the kings of England, starting with Henry I and on to Edward VI, took the coronation oath.
passional (adjective), more passional, most passional
Relating to, or marked by love or affection: James read about passional feelings pertaining to emotions and not to the intellect.
passionate (adjective), more passionate, most passionate
1. Referring to a person who has or shows strong emotions; emotional: When Janet found a new project to do, she became very passionate, earnest, enthusiastic, and fervent, and spent almost all her time with carrying out her new project.
2. Concerning an individual who is easily angered; hot-tempered: James seemed to be a wrathful, passionate, and choleric man and consequently didn't have any friends!
2. Descriptive of someone who expresses, or tends to arouse strong feelings: Mary's husband was a very passionate lover!
3. Regarding great vehemence, and sometimes violence, and now and then wasteful dispersal of emotion: Jim got very upset with the war in the Ukraine and decided to take part in marches through the city, and to give passionate, flaring, and powerful speeches in front of the town hall.
passionless (adjective), more passionless, most passionless
Descriptive of that which is unemotional; without feeling; withdrawn: The newspaper review of the concert described it as being quite passionless and boring.
passive (adjective), more passive, most passive
1. Referring to a person who is influenced or acted upon without acting in return; offering no opposition or resistance: A passive behavior or conduct can also be described as receiving or enduring without resistance, being submissive, unassertive, or compliant.
2. In aviation, pertaining to a conveyance or thing that does not power itself: A passive flight, like gliding and soaring, or a balloon are just two examples of such passive airborne vehicles or objects.
passively (adverb) (not comparable)
1. Regarding how a person acts in a submissive manner; without resistance: Some students in Mrs. Smart's class were very active and had good ideas for their projects, while others just accepted the suggestions passively without any questions.
2. Descriptive of how an individual demonstrates a docile nature or temper; with a temper disposed to submit to the acts of external agents: Jack had a bland expression on his face while listening passively to what the principal was telling him.
3. Pertaining to how sunlight is used for energy: Mr. and Mrs. Longman decided to invest their money in passively heating their new home with the light of the sun, hoping to save money on their energy bills!
passivity (s) (noun), passivities (pl)
1. The condition of remaining inactive; a lack of initiative: Marge's passivity following the devastating news was exemplified by her being in state of numbness and apathy.
2. Submission to others or to outside influences: Passivity might help a person from getting into a fight!
3. The tendency of a body to persevere in a given state, either of motion or rest, until disturbed by another body: Greg was in a state of passivity while in bed sleeping, but this was suddenly changed when the fire alarm went off in his building!
4. Chemical inactivity: Passivity pertains particularly to the resistance to corrosion of certain metals when covered with a coherent oxide layer.
patience (s) (noun), patiences (pl)
The capacity, habit, or fact of being calm and enduring pain, or affliction, with composure and without complaint; calm endurance, forbearance: When Jane was making some bread using yeast, she had to have a lot of patience for the dough to rise.

A lack of pep is often mistaken for patience.

—Ken Hubbard

Endurance is patience concentrated.

—Thomas Carlyle

He that can have patience can have what he will.

—Benjamin Franklin

Patience is power; with time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk.

—Chinese Proverb

If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.

—Hal Borland

Patience is a quality that is most needed when it is exhausted and it's also the ability to do something else while waiting. Patience is the most important virtue to cultivate if you are always punctual.

—Evan Esar

Fortune knocks but once, but misfortune has much more patience.

—Laurence J. Peter

Nature, time, and patience are the three great physicians.

—Bulgarian proverb
patient (s) (noun), patients (pl)
An animal or human being that is treated by a medical person or doctor: The patients in the waiting room had to wait patiently and calmly for their turn to see the doctor.

Quiz If you would like to take a couple of self-scoring quizzes over some of the words in this section, then click on the Pati-Quiz links below.

Quiz Self-scoring Pass-, Pati- Quiz #1.

Quiz Self-scoring Pass-, Pati- Quiz #2.



Related-word units meaning feeling: aesth-; senso-; patho-.