compersion

/kəmˈpɜːʒn̩/

Etymology

Coined in the early 1990s by a group of members of the Kerista Commune, a polyamorous group based in San Francisco, California, U.S.A., in existence between 1956 and 1991, apparently randomly using an alphabet board (similar to a Ouija board), with -ion (suffix forming nouns). The hypothesis that the word is derived from French compère (“partner”) + English -sion (a variant of -tion (suffix forming nouns)), based on an earlier use of French compérage by the French anthropologist and ethnologist Claude Lévi-Strauss (1908–2009) to denote the practice of brothers-in-law sharing wives observed among Tupi people of the Brazilian Amazon, is less plausible: a website run by former members of the community states that neither the word compérage nor Lévi-Strauss’s work was known to them at the time

compersion means Vicarious joy associated with seeing one's partner have a joyful romantic or sexual relationship with another person. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.

Why this word is great

COMPERSION — [Noun] Vicarious joy experienced when one’s partner finds happiness in another romantic or sexual relationship. Coined in the early 1990s by members of the Kerista Commune, apparently via an alphabet board, with the suffix -ion grafted onto an invented root to lend it a functional, Latinate weight. Unlike schadenfreude, which savors the cold satisfaction of another’s pain, or the broad neutrality of empathy, compersion is a targeted, willed celebration of a happiness that excludes you. It is the quiet warmth of hearing a partner laugh on a phone call with a metamour, the genuine smile at the recounting of a shared joke you were not part of, the deliberate loosening of a possessive grip to watch another’s hand be held—a radical, cultivated proof that love is not a finite resource but a capacity that expands in the witnessing of its own multiplication.

noun

Vicarious joy associated with seeing one's partner have a joyful romantic or sexual relationship with another person.
The feeling of joy one has experiencing another's joy, such as in witnessing a toddler's joy and feeling joy in response.“A major component of jealousy, for many people, is the suspicion or resentment of the rival. In Kerista, on the other hand, the relationship that every man had with the other men and that every woman had with the other women elicited what they called "compersion" rather than jealousy. "Compersion is the positive warm feeling you experience when you see two of your partners having fun with each oth”