pathos
UK /ˈpeɪˌθɒs/ · US /ˈpeɪˌθɑs/ noun
Forms pathoses
- noun 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.
- noun (rhetoric) A form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker uses emotional appeals to the audience as the main form of persuasion.
- noun (literature) An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
- noun (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.
- noun Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality; as, the pathos of a picture, of a poem, or of a cry. The combination of incident, and the pathos of catastrophe. T. Warton.
Etymology [L., from Gr. pati to suffer, E. patient.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pathos”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details