pathos
(ˈpeɪθɒs)
[mod. a. Gr. πάθος suffering, feeling: so F. pathos (Molière 1672).]
1. That quality in speech, writing, music, or artistic representation (or transf. in events, circumstances, persons, etc.) which excites a feeling of pity or sadness; power of stirring tender or melancholy emotion; pathetic or affecting character or influence.
| 1668 Dryden Dram. Poesy Ess. (Ker) I. 81 There is a certain gaiety in their comedies, and pathos in their more serious plays. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 1632 There dwells a noble pathos in the skies, Which warms our passions. 1855 Prescott Philip II, I. ii. xi. 263 He descanted on the woes of the land with a pathos which drew tears from every eye. 1874 Green Short Hist. vii. §6. 399 The tale of Protestant sufferings was told with a wonderful pathos..by John Foxe. |
b. A pathetic expression or utterance. rare.
| 1579 E. K. Gloss Spenser's Sheph. Cal. May 189 And with) A very Poeticall παθός [ed. 1591 pathos]. a 1644 Westfield Eng. Face (1646) 127 ‘Lord..If thou wilt pardon this people!’ It was a vehement pathos. 1853–8 Hawthorne Eng. Note-Bks. (1879) II. 294 Little pathoses..are abundant enough. |
2. Suffering (bodily or mental). rare.
| 1693 tr. Blancard's Phys. Dict. (ed. 2), Pathos, vid. Pathema [Pathema, all preternatural Conturbation wherewith our Body is molested]. 1842 Tennyson Love & Duty 82 Shall sharpest pathos blight us, knowing all Life needs for life is possible to will? 1853 Dunglison Med. Lex., Pathos, Affection, Disease. |
3. In reference to art, esp. ancient Greek art: The quality of the transient or emotional, as opposed to the permanent or ideal: see ethos 2.
| 1881 Q. Rev. Oct. 542 The real is preferred to the ideal, transient emotion to permanent lineaments, pathos to ethos. |