pathos

[pey-thos, -thohs, -thaws]

See more synonyms for pathos on Thesaurus.com

noun

the quality or power in an actual life experience or in literature, music, speech, or other forms of expression, of evoking a feeling of pity, or of sympathetic and kindly sorrow or compassion.
pity.
Obsolete. suffering.

Origin of pathos

1570–80; < Greek páthos suffering, sensation, akin to páschein to suffer

Can be confusedbathos pathos

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for pathos

emotion, passion, poignancy, desolation, feeling, sentiment, poignance

Examples from the Web for pathos

Contemporary Examples of pathos

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 Work
William 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.
Zach Braff’s Irritating Sense of Entitlement
Andrew Romano
July 18, 2014
Once edgily shocking, the show now feels rich with pathos and poignancy.
Who Will Win the Tony Awards?
Janice Kaplan
June 7, 2014
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 Grow
David Morris
May 18, 2014
Our ambitious activists of all stripes have just about sucked the last drop of pathos out of “raising awareness.”
Rand Paul’s Comments on GOP Voter-ID Laws Mark a Turning Point
James Poulos
May 13, 2014

Historical Examples of pathos

Into these last words there crept the pathos of one who knew.
Within the Law
Marvin Dana
They have left here the marks of tragedy, of pathos, or of joy.
Tiverton Tales
Alice Brown
Our disaster was too awful, and the pathos of that solitary survivor too piercing.
The Comrade In White
W. H. Leathem
The poem is full of pathos and humour; full of beauty and grandeur, earnestness and truth.
A Dish Of Orts
George MacDonald
Her beautiful eyes, so full of pathos, so full of remorse, looked straight into his.
The Law-Breakers
Ridgwell Cullum

British Dictionary definitions for pathos

pathos

noun

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

Word Origin for pathos

C17: from Greek: suffering; related to penthos sorrow

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

Word Origin and History for pathos

"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").