# pathos
## English
### Etymology

From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈpeɪˌθɒs/
* (US) IPA: /ˈpeɪˌθɑs/, /ˈpeɪˌθɔs/, /ˈpeɪˌθoʊs/, /ˈpæˌθoʊs/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)

### Noun

pathos (countable and uncountable, plural pathoses)
* The quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, especially that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality.
    Synonym: patheticness
** 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far From The Madding Crowd:His voice had a genuine pathos now, and his large brown hands perceptibly trembled.
** 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:She could not see, for her whitish eyes were covered with a horny film. Oh, the horrible pathos of the sight! But she could still speak.
** 20 August 2018, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett in The Guardian, Young women are smashing it at Edinburgh as the #MeToo legacy kicks in
    Pritchard-McLean’s show is perfectly constructed, and at times deeply moving to the point where some audience members were near tears, yet the pathos is undercut by true belly laughs – but don’t trust me, read the reviews.
* (rhetoric) A form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker uses emotional appeals to the audience as the main form of persuasion.
** 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 250:It was impossible to endure the jargon and the affected pathos of the squire any longer.
* (literature) An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
* (theology, philosophy) In theology and existentialist ethics following Kierkegaard and Heidegger, a deep and abiding commitment of the heart, as in the notion of "finding your passion" as an important aspect of a fully lived, engaged life.
* Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

#### Quotations

* For quotations using this term, see Citations:pathos.

#### Related terms

* antipathy
* apathy
* empathy
* pathetic
* pathic
* pathology
* pathogen
* psychopathy
* sympathy

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Further reading

* “pathos”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “pathos”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
* pathos on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Anagrams

* Pashto, Potash, potash, sophta

## Dutch
### Etymology

From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos, “suffering”).

### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Noun

pathos m (uncountable)
* pathos
    Coordinate terms: bathos, logos, ethos

#### Related terms

* bathos
* pathetiek
* pathetisch

### Further reading

* pathos on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia $^{nl}$

## Portuguese
### Alternative forms

* páthos, patos

### Etymology

From Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos).

### Noun

pathos m (invariable)
* pathos (the quality of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions)

## Spanish
### Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek πάθος (páthos).

### Noun

pathos m (plural pathos)
* pathos (the quality of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions)

### Further reading

* “pathos”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10