pathetic, a. (n.)
(pəˈθɛtɪk)
Also 6–7 pathetique.
[ad. late L. pathētic-us, a. Gr. παθητικός sensitive, f. παθητός liable to suffer, f. παθ-, root of πάσχειν to suffer and πάθος suffering. Cf. F. pathétique (16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), It. patetico.]
A. adj.
1. Producing an effect upon the emotions; exciting the passions or affections; moving, stirring, affecting. † a. In general sense. Obs.
| 1598 Marston Sco. Villanie x. H iij b, Some new pathetique Tragedy. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. ix. (1848) 224 The more Instructive and Pathetick passages. 1762 Symmer in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. ii. IV. 450 A very proper speech, delivered in a noble and pathetic manner. |
b. In modern use: Affecting the tender emotions; exciting a feeling of pity, sympathy, or sadness; full of pathos.
| 1737 Pope Hor. Epist. ii. i. 232 The Boys and Girls whom charity maintains, Implore your help in these pathetic strains. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xiv. vi, Mrs. Miller..saying, in the most pathetic voice, ‘Good Heaven! let me preserve one of my children at least.’ 1798 Ferriar Illustr. Sterne vi. 174 There is one passage..which the circumstances of Sterne's death render pathetic. 1829 Lytton Devereux i. ii. Our parting with our uncle was quite pathetic. 1885 Clodd Myths & Dr. ii. x. 212 Indian mothers in pathetic custom drop their milk on the lips of the dead child. |
c. Used adverbially.
| 1725 Pope Odyss. iv. 149 Thus pathetic to the Prince he spoke. 1792 Munchausen's Trav. xxvi. 119, I spoke as pathetic as possible. |
† 2. Expressing or arising from passion or strong emotion; passionate, earnest. Obs.
| 1648 J. Beaumont Psyche ii. cxc, Her cordial Thanks and her pathetick Vows. 1681 D'Urfey Progr. Honesty viii, She out of patience grows, And quells the little Rebel with pathetick blows. 1755 Young Centaur v. Wks. 1757 IV. 241 Heaven..joins my pathetic wish. |
† 3. ? Causing a physical sensation or affection; affecting the bodily senses. Obs. rare.
| 1653 R. Mason Let. to Auth. in Bulwer's Anthropomet., The stem, bark, leaves, and fruit are of such various..pathetique qualities. |
4. Pertaining or relating to the passions or emotions of the mind. (In early use applied to bodily movements expressive of emotion.)
| 1649 Bulwer Pathomyot. i. iv. 16 That species of motion which they call Pathetique. 1681 tr. Willis' Rem. Med. Wks., Five Treat. xvii. 117 This Nerve..serves also for the producing some pathetick motions of the Eye. 1719 Swift To Yng. Clergym. Wks. 1755 II. ii. 7 Tully considered the dispositions of a..less mercurial nation, by dwelling almost entirely on the pathetick part. |
b. Phr. pathetic fallacy, the attribution of human response or emotion to inanimate nature. (First used by John Ruskin.)
| 1856 Ruskin Mod. Paint. III. iv. xii. §5. 160 All violent feelings..produce..a falseness in..impressions of external things, which I would generally characterize as the ‘Pathetic fallacy’. 1856 Geo. Eliot in Westm. Rev. Apr. 631 Mr. Ruskin..enters on his special subject, namely landscape painting. With that intense interest in landscape which is a peculiar characteristic of modern times, is associated the ‘Pathetic Fallacy’—the transference to external objects of the spectator's own emotions. 1895 C. H. Herford Spenser's Shepheards Calender p. xlviii, Pastoral nature is founded upon the ‘pathetic fallacy’. 1906 W. W. Greg Pastoral Poetry & Pastoral Drama 93 We have here a specific inversion of the ‘pathetic fallacy’. 1930 H. S. V. Jones Spenser Handbk. iii. 64 Each elegy opens with an apostrophe to the poet's verse, and each illustrates what Ruskin called the ‘pathetic fallacy’. 1930 L. Powys (title) The pathetic fallacy: a study of Christianity. 1959 Listener 6 Aug. 223/2 Many awaited death..while the pathetic fallacy laboured away with ill winds and rain. 1968 Ibid. 18 Jan. 68/3 To believe that a television station should be part of its audience could seem like the Pathetic Fallacy (Communications Division), a piece of electronic anthropomorphism. 1975 M. C. Davis Near Woods v. 83 The next morning I fell under the spell of literature's pathetic fallacy at nearly every step. 1977 D Watkin Morality & Archit. ii. ii. 38 Le Corbusier's argument..combines succinctly the pathetic fallacies we are investigating: that particular types of architectural form are morally regenerative and physically health-giving. |
5. Anat. A name for the fourth pair of cranial nerves, also called trochlear. So pathetic muscle, the superior oblique muscle of the eyeball, connected with the trochlear nerve.
| 1681 tr. Willis' Rem. Med. Wks. Vocab., Pathetic, to passion belonging, nerves so called by Dr. Willis. [Cf. quot. 1681 in 4, and pathetical 4.] 1704 J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Pathetick Nerves, are the Fourth pair arising from the Top of the Medulla Oblongata. 1842 Dunglison Dict. Med. Sc., Pathetic, a name given to the superior oblique muscle of the eye, and, also, to a nerve. 1881 Mivart Cat 271 The fourth pair of nerves, called also the Trochlear or Pathetic. 1893 Syd. Soc. Lex., Pathetic muscle, the Obliquus superior muscle of the eyeball,..fancifully supposed to express, by its action, the passions and affections. |
6. Miserably inadequate; so poor as to be ridiculous. colloq.
| 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 609/2 Pathetic, ludicrous. 1969 Listener 10 July 41/1 The military government clearly thinks it is established for good. The alleged plots against it are either mythical or, when genuine, pathetic. 1974 Liverpool Echo (Football ed.) 26 Oct. 3/2 The standard of refereeing in English soccer is pathetic. There is no consistency. |
B. absol. or as n.
1. absol. the pathetic: that which is pathetic; pathetic quality, expression, or feeling.
| 1712 Addison Spect. No. 339 ¶1 The Pathetick..may animate and inflame the Sublime, but is not essential to it. 1858 Dickens Lett. (1880) II. 59, I very much doubt the Irish capacity of receiving the pathetic. |
2. † a. sing. Pathetic language, feeling, etc.; pathos, or the expression of pathos. Obs.
| 1667 Waterhouse Fire Lond. 84 Holy Job's pathetique is upon a like dismal accident. a 1849 H. Coleridge Ess. (1851) II. 218 What a contrast to the drunken pathetic of his weeping client! |
b. pl. Pathetic expressions or sentiments: cf. heroics.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1810) I. xxxiii. 248 Miss Pert, none of your pathetics, except in the right place. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. ii, [He] went at once into such deep pathetics, that he knocked the first speaker clean out of the course. 1894 D. C. Murray Making of Novelist 212, I find pathetics among them, and quaint humours. |
3. pl. The study of the passions or emotions.
| 1896 Id'er Mar. 263/2 Pathological Pathetics..had..almost monopolised the conversation. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 12 Jan. 1/3 Pathetics is, or should be, the name of a study of the effects on a personality caused by an artistic appeal to the emotions. |
4. Anat. Short for pathetic nerve: see A. 5.