Which dictionary are you reading?
Merriam-Webster:
"1
: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively
explicit manner; also
: the capacity for this "
Oxford English:
"The ability to understand and share the feelings of another."
Neither definition has "
have the feelings of another".
The APA web site does not even have a definition of empathy (that I can find, anyway). It isn't in their glossary.
Methinks you've made a mountain from a grain of sand.