The “English” word empathy was coined in 1909 by E.B. Titchener as an attempt to translate the german word Einfühlungsvermögen — which was later retranslated into German as Empathie:
The English word is derived from the Greek word empatheia, “physical affection, passion, partiality” which comes from en, “in, at” + pathos, “passion” or “suffering”.
The term was adapted by Hermann Lotze and Robert Vischer to create the German word Einfühlung (“feeling into”), which was translated by Edward B. Titchener into the English term empathy.