pathos
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English
Etymology
From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈpeɪˌθɒs/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈpeɪˌθɑs/, /ˈpeɪˌθɔs/, /ˈpeɪˌθoʊs/, /ˈpæˌθoʊs/
Audio (Southern England) (file)
Noun
pathos (countable and uncountable, plural pathoses)
- The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
- Synonym: patheticness
- 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From The Madding Crowd:
- His voice had a genuine pathos now, and his large brown hands perceptibly trembled.
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- She could not see, for her whitish eyes were covered with a horny film. Oh, the horrible pathos of the sight! But she could still speak.
- 20 August 2018, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett in The Guardian, Young women are smashing it at Edinburgh as the #MeToo legacy kicks in
- Pritchard-McLean’s show is perfectly constructed, and at times deeply moving to the point where some audience members were near tears, yet the pathos is undercut by true belly laughs – but don’t trust me, read the reviews.
- (rhetoric) A writer or speaker's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions such as pity.
- 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 250:
- It was impossible to endure the jargon and the affected pathos of the squire any longer.
- (literature) An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
- (theology, philosophy) In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.
- Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.
Quotations
- For quotations using this term, see Citations:pathos.
Related terms
Translations
the quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions
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a writer or speaker's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Further reading
- “pathos”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “pathos”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
pathos on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
Anagrams
Dutch
Etymology
From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Noun
pathos m (uncountable)
Related terms
Further reading
- pathos on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia nl
Portuguese
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos).
Noun
pathos m (invariable)
- pathos (the quality of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions)
Spanish
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos).
Noun
pathos m (plural pathos)
- pathos (the quality of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions)
Further reading
- “pathos”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014