pathetic fallacy

English

Etymology

Coined by British cultural critic John Ruskin in 1885 in his book Modern Painting. The term fallacy does not refer to a logical fallacy, but should be understood as “a falsehood, something that is untrue”, while pathetic here means “caused by an excited state of the feelings”.

Noun

pathetic fallacy (plural pathetic fallacies)

1. A metaphor which consists in treating inanimate objects or concepts as if they were human beings, for instance having thoughts or feelings.

See also

• personification
• anthropomorphism
• reification