passion [OE] The word passion comes via Old French from Latin pati ‘to suffer’. The Passion refers to the suffering of Jesus Christ. The sexual sense dates from the late 16th century. Passionate in Late Middle English included the senses ‘easily moved to passion’ and ‘enraged’. Passive [LME] comes from the same root, from the sense of ‘being acted upon’, and compassion [ME] is literally ‘suffering with’ someone, while compatible [LME] comes from the Latin for ‘fit to suffer with’.