pathetic fallacy

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noun

the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies; the angry sea.

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Origin of pathetic fallacy

Coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters Vol. III, Part IV (1856)

Words nearby pathetic fallacy

path, Pathan, pathbreaker, pathbreaking, pathetic, pathetic fallacy, Pathet Lao, pathfinder, pathfinder prospectus, -pathia, -pathic

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use pathetic fallacy in a sentence

And we can listen to the pathetic, creepy bravado of a former vice president, wrong on nearly every decision he made.
Dick Cheney vs. ‘Unbroken’|Mike Barnicle|December 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
In fact, what this map really showed was the fallacy of aggregates – and how statistics can mask real cultural shifts.
Beer Countries vs. Wine Countries|Clive Irving|December 7, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But this had to be one of the most pathetic presidential wardrobes in American history.
From Auschwitz to the White House: One Tailor’s American Tale|Martin Greenfield|December 5, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Telling people that you knew her when would just be pathetic.
Is Bigger Better for St. Vincent?|David Yaffe|December 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST

Fortunately, they are drawn from a pathetic preterite far beneath the contempt of our cultural elite.
The FBI’s Bogus ISIS Bust|James Poulos|November 21, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Tressan fell suddenly to groaning and wringing his hands a pathetic figure had it been less absurd.
St. Martin's Summer|Rafael Sabatini
The observer might well remain perplexed at the pathetic discord between human work and human wants.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock
It is curious to note children's first manifestations of a sense of the pathetic and the comic as represented in art.
Children's Ways|James Sully
He was fond of the pathetic, but the humorous moved him most, and his lively gifts were welcome wherever we went.
Fifty Years of Railway Life in England, Scotland and Ireland|Joseph Tatlow
In spite of his brilliant career, Bernadotte must ever remain one of the most pathetic figures in history.
Napoleon's Marshals|R. P. Dunn-Pattison

British Dictionary definitions for pathetic fallacy

pathetic fallacy

noun

(in literature) the presentation of inanimate objects in nature as possessing human feelings

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012