
Boosted by cstanhope@social.coop ("Your friendly 'net denizen"):
MLE_online@social.afront.org ("Emily Velasco") wrote:
A friend of mine has been described by his friends as "the opposite of a sociopath," as in going so far out of his way to please others that it's to his own detriment.
He and I were chatting about this and decided there should be a word for it.
The word sociopath is formed from two parts: socio- for society and -path, from the Greek pathos, meaning suffering.
Looking for a suffix of opposite meaning, I found the Greek word agathos, which means benefit or good.
So, if a sociopath is someone who causes others to suffer for their own benefit, we propose the term "sociagath" for someone who does good for others while causing themselves to suffer.