Archaic KJV Word
Compassion
Modern equivalent: feeling sorry for
What Was Lost
The bodily convulsion. Every time the Gospels say Jesus was 'moved with compassion,' the Greek means His internal organs churned. This was not a thought but a physical event -- the empathic pain was so intense it convulsed His body. And every time splanchnizomai appears, it immediately leads to action: healing, feeding, touching. Compassion was a bodily anguish that could not rest until it acted.
Closest Survivor in Modern English
compassion (still used but the gut-churning, action-compelling physicality is lost)
Peak Usage (1611)
KJV Matthew 9:36 -- 'When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion'; Matthew 14:14 -- 'Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them'
Died still used but sentimentalized (~1900)
Greek splanchnizomai ('to be moved in the bowels/to have one's internal organs churned with anguish/a full-body physical response of empathic pain') sentimentalized into 'feeling sorry for someone.'
What Replaced It
“sympathy”
Mental understanding of another's pain; splanchnizomai was a gut-wrenching physical experience
“pity”
Condescending; compassion was a convulsive bodily response that compelled action
“empathy”
Emotional mirroring; Jesus's compassion was a full-body anguish that immediately produced healing