pathetical, a. Now rare.
(pəˈθɛtɪkəl)
[f. as prec. + -al1.]
1. = pathetic A. 1.
| 1573 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 32 Certain loud pathetical exclamations, and broad hyperboles. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. i. ii. 103 Sweet inuocation of a childe, most pretty and patheticall. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 129 They..play on flutes doleful and pathetical straines, to excite devotion. 1712 Hughes Spect. No. 541 ¶7 That pathetical Soliloquy of Cardinal Wolsey on his Fall. 1859 Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 64 In one page.., Elizabeth is a fool for listening to these pathetical ‘love letters’; in the next she is hard-hearted for not listening to them. |
† 2. = pathetic A. 2. Obs.
| 1604 R. Cawdrey Table Alph., Patheticall, vehement, full of passions, or mouing affections. 1648 Milton Tenure Kings (1650) 13 The pathetical words of a Psalme can be no certaine decision to a poynt. 1662 W. Gurnall Chr. in Arm. verse 18. i. viii. (1669) 347/2 Thou may'st pray much in these pathetical Sallies of thy Soul to Heaven. |
† 3. = pathetic A. 4. Obs.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 67 Prudence and wisedome..reduceth the power of this sensuall and patheticall part, unto a civill and honest habitude. |
† 4. = pathetic A. 5. Obs.
| 1681 tr. Willis' Rem. Med. Wks., Five Treat. xiv. 110 Wherefore from this..conjecture..concerning the use of these Nerves, we have called them Pathetical. |