The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin terms that are typically translated as “mercy” (or “compassion” or “kindness”) in English are translated in various ways. Bratcher / Nida classify them in (1) those based on the quality of heart, or other psychological center, (2) those which introduce the concept of weeping or extreme sorrow, (3) those which involve willingness to look upon and recognize the condition of others, or (4) those which involve a variety of intense feelings.

While the English mercy originates from the Latin merces, originally “price paid,” Romance languages (Italian, Spanish, Corsican, Catalan, Friulian) and other Germanic languages (German, Swedish, Danish — Barmherzigkeit, barmhärtighet and barmhjertighed, respectively) tend to follow the Latin misericordia, lit. “misery-heart.”

Here are some other (back-) translations:

• Ngäbere: “tender heart”
• Mískito: “white heart”
• Amganad Ifugao: “what arises from a kind heart”
• Vai: “purity of heart”
• Western Kanjobal: “his abdomen weeps”
• Kipsigis: “cry inside”
• Shilluk: “cry continually within”
• Navajo (Dinė): “feel great sorrow” (“with the connotation of being about to cry”)
• Kpelle: “see misery”
• Toro So Dogon: “know misery”
• Western Highland Purepecha: “be in pain for”
• San Miguel El Grande Mixtec: “be very sorry for”
• Mezquital Otomi: “have increasing love for”
• Tepeuxila Cuicatec: “showing undeserved goodness” (“closely identified with grace”) (source for this and all above: Bratcher / Nida)
• Yatzachi Zapotec: “pity-love”
• Central Mazahua: “very much pity people”
• Alekano: “help people who are suffering”
• Guhu-Samane: “feeling sorry for men” (source for this and three above: Ellis Deibler in Notes on Translation July, 1967, p. 5ff.)
• Warao: “kobe (= the abdominal region, including the heart) hurts” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. )
• Latvian: žēlastība, the same term that is also used for grace (source: Katie Roth)
• Iloko: asi — also means “pity” and is used for a love of the poor and helpless (source: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
• Bilua: “forgiving love” (source: Carl Gross)
• Luang: “inside goodness” (source: Kathy and Mark Taber in Kroneman [2004], p. 533)
• Mairasi: “have good intestines” (see Seat of the Mind) (source: Lloyd Peckham)
• Bariai: “have a wounded interior” (source: Bariai Back Translation)

See also steadfast love.