pathos
[pey-thos, -thohs, -thaws]
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Origin of pathos
1570–80; < Greek páthos suffering, sensation, akin to páschein to suffer
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for pathos
Contemporary Examples
This movie and the novel are a beautiful blend of pathos and comedy.
Sherman Alexie on His New Film, the Redskins, and Why It's OK to Laugh at His WorkWilliam O’Connor
August 22, 2014
Braff is striving to convey a poignant blend of pathos and humor here, but his sort of striving is a form of cheating.
Once edgily shocking, the show now feels rich with pathos and poignancy.
Instead, they (and we) all slip back into a cultural habit that has its origins in the Vietnam War: we turn to pity and pathos.
Surviving War Doesn’t Turn All Veterans into Victims, Sometimes it Helps Them GrowDavid Morris
May 18, 2014
Our ambitious activists of all stripes have just about sucked the last drop of pathos out of “raising awareness.”
Historical Examples
Into these last words there crept the pathos of one who knew.
Within the LawMarvin Dana
They have left here the marks of tragedy, of pathos, or of joy.
Tiverton TalesAlice Brown
Our disaster was too awful, and the pathos of that solitary survivor too piercing.
The Comrade In WhiteW. H. Leathem
The poem is full of pathos and humour; full of beauty and grandeur, earnestness and truth.
A Dish Of OrtsGeorge MacDonald
Her beautiful eyes, so full of pathos, so full of remorse, looked straight into his.
The Law-BreakersRidgwell Cullum
pathos
- the quality or power, esp in literature or speech, of arousing feelings of pity, sorrow, etc
- a feeling of sympathy or pitya stab of pathos
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Word Origin
C17: from Greek: suffering; related to penthos sorrow
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for pathos
n.
"quality that arouses pity or sorrow," 1660s, from Greek pathos "suffering, feeling, emotion, calamity," literally "what befalls one," related to paskhein "to suffer," and penthos "grief, sorrow;" from PIE root *kwent(h)- "to suffer, endure" (cf. Old Irish cessaim "I suffer," Lithuanian kenčiu "to suffer," pakanta "patience").
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper