pathos

See also: Pathos and páthos

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)

1. 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.

2. (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.

3. (literature) An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
4. (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.
5. Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:pathos.

Related terms

• antipathy
• apathy
• empathy
• pathetic
• pathic
• pathology
• pathogen
• psychopathy
• sympathy

Translations

the quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions

• Bulgarian: патос (bg) m (patos)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 感傷／感伤 (zh) (gǎnshāng), 哀婉 (zh) (āiwǎn)

• Esperanto: patoso (eo)
• Finnish: paatos (fi)
• French: pathétique (fr) m
• Greek: πάθος (el) n (páthos)
• Japanese: パトス (ja) (patosu)
• Polish: patos (pl) m
• Portuguese: pathos (pt) m, páthos (pt) m, patos (pt) m
• Russian: подъём (ru) m (podʺjóm), воодушевле́ние (ru) n (vooduševlénije), энтузиа́зм (ru) m (entuziázm), па́фос (ru) m (páfos)
• Spanish: pathos

a writer or speaker's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals

• Danish: patos (da) c
• Finnish: tunteisiin vetoaminen, paatos (fi)
• Greek: πάθος (el) n (páthos)
• Russian: па́фос (ru) m (páfos)
• Swedish: patos (sv) c

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

• Hebrew: ^{(please verify)} פתוס (he) f
• Mongolian: ^{(please verify)} гаслан (mn) (gaslan)
• Scottish Gaelic: ^{(please verify)} drùidhteachd f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ^{(please verify)} патос m, ^{(please verify)} патетика f

  Roman: ^{(please verify)} patos (sh) m, ^{(please verify)} patetika (sh) f

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

• Pashto, Potash, potash, sophta

Dutch

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

pathos m (uncountable)

1. pathos

   Coordinate terms: bathos, logos, ethos

Related terms

• bathos
• pathetiek
• pathetisch

 

Further reading

• pathos on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• páthos, patos

Etymology

From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos).

Noun

pathos m (invariable)

1. 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)

1. 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