pathetic
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /pəˈθɛtɪk/
rhymes: -ɛtɪk
Forms: form: more pathetic
form: most pathetic
form: pathetick
form: patheticke
form: pathetique
Etymology: From Middle French pathétique, from Latin patheticus, from Ancient Greek παθητικός (pathētikós, “subject to feeling, capable of feeling, impassioned”), from παθητός (pathētós, “one who has suffered, subject to suffering”), from πάσχω (páskhō, “to suffer”).
Senses: examples: text: The child’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.
text: We have now arrived at one of the most pathetic and glorious events in the history of Israel, one which sanctifies the Lamanite race with the powers of martyrdom, and, by the blood of the victims, washes its garments white from many a former sin.
ref: 1883, George Reynolds, “History of the Book of Mormon: Contents of the Records, II,”, in Contributor:
text: She held his hand in one of hers, but she too was dozing, and the two made a pretty, or rather a pathetic, picture.
ref: 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
text: There was no hospital, or any accommodation for the sick men. Each mate nursed his fellow, and some strikingly pathetic touches of devotion were shown here and there amongst them.
ref: 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 150:
text: [H]e was led away to a private sanitarium for mental disease, while in the newspapers appeared pathetic accounts of his mental breakdown and of the saintliness of his character.
ref: 1908 February 19, Jack London, “The Bishop”, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC, page 188:
synonyms: word: deplorable
word: miserable
word: pathetisad
word: pitiful
word: wretched
word: atrabiliary
word: atrabilious
word: deplorable
word: depressing
word: distressing
word: grievous
word: miserable
word: lamentable
word: lachrymable
word: mournful
word: pathetic
word: pathetisad
word: pitiable
word: pitiful
word: pitisome
word: regrettable
word: rueful
word: sad
word: saddening
word: sorrowful
word: tragic
word: unhappy
word: upsetting
word: woebegone
word: woeful
glosses: Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion; exciting pathos.
examples: text: You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic.
text: You're almost 26 years old and you still can't hold a real job? That's pathetic.
text: Well you'd better think of something because middle-aged tramps aren't cute, they're pathetic.
ref: 2005, In Her Shoes:
text: Look, I-I hate to sound like Billy Baldwin’s agent, but you can’t just copy everything that ALEC does! It’s pathetic!”
ref: 2014 November 2, Tim Carvell [et al.], “State Legislatures and ALEC”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 23, John Oliver (actor), Warner Bros. Television, via HBO:
synonyms: disgraceful
scornful
shameful
despicable
dishonorable
glosses: Arousing scorn or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.
examples: text: On a certain Good Friday, in what year we are not told, an especially moving and pathetic sermon was preached in the Cathedral by Father John Texeda, upon the sufferings of our Lord.
ref: 1894, A. M. Clarke, The Life of Saint Francis Borgia, page 95:
synonyms: word: mad
word: seething
word: angry
word: annoyed
word: apoplectic
word: bad-tempered
word: berserk
word: big mad
word: blood-boiling
word: boiling mad
word: cheesed off
word: choleric
word: cross
word: enraged
word: fit to be tied
word: fuming
word: furibund
word: furious
word: fury
word: glimflashy
word: hopping mad
word: ill-natured
word: incensed
word: infuriated
word: irate
word: ireful
word: ired
word: irritated
word: little mad
word: livid
word: mad
word: mad as a bear with a sore head
word: pathetic
word: pissed off
word: p'd off
word: pissed
word: pissy
word: raging
word: ready to be tied
word: screwfaced
word: seething
word: spitting chips
word: splenetic
word: sore
word: steaming
word: up on one's ear
word: vexed
word: waxy
word: wode
word: wrathful
word: wroth
word: zowerswopped
glosses: Expressing or showing anger; passionate.
topics: anatomy
medicine
sciences
glosses: Trochlear.
Derived terms: hyperpathetic
nonpathetic
pathetically
pathetic fallacy
patheticism
pathetic nerve
patheticness
pathetics
telepathetic
un-pathetic
Related terms: pathos