pathos

noun

pa·​thos ˈpā-ˌthäs 

-ˌthȯs,

-ˌthōs 

 also  ˈpa-

1

: an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion

2

: an emotion of sympathetic pity

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Pathos Entered English in the 1500s

The Greek word páthos means "experience, misfortune, emotion, condition,” and comes from Greek path-, meaning “experience, undergo, suffer.” In English, pathos usually refers to the element in an experience or in an artistic work that makes us feel compassion, pity, or sympathy. The word is a member of a big family: empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings. Pathetic (in its gentlest uses) describes things that move us to pity. Though pathology is not literally "the study of suffering," it is "the study of diseases." Other relatives of pathos include sympathy, apathy, and antipathy.

Examples of pathos in a Sentence

There is a pathos to the deflated certainties that left the Washington lawyer Leonard Garment weeping, inconsolable, outside the Senate chamber as the debate was ended. —Garry Wills, New York Times Book Review, 10 Sept. 1989

Many schools at the end of the Depression were poor, but the threadbare nature of Christchurch was almost Dickensian in its pathos. —William Styron, This Quiet Dust and Other Writings, (1953) 1982

The struggle back to solvency was arduous, and the stubborn determination and reserves of strength that it called forth from him in his mid-forties made him all at once a figure of considerable pathos and heroism in my eyes, a cross of a kind between Captain Ahab and Willy Loman. —Philip Roth, Reading Myself and Others, (1961) 1975

Our knowledge of his tragic end adds an element of pathos to the story of his early success.

Recent Examples on the Web

An All-Stars 9 episode where the contrived drama of the ruby slippers built to a true moment of pathos? —Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 7 June 2024

Enrique Martínez Celaya, Iván Capote, and William Osorio visualize the pathos of family separation and of memories fragmented over space and time. —Richard Feinberg, Foreign Affairs, 28 Feb. 2023

But Goldwyn’s direction is sure-handed in navigating the complicated tone that tiptoes through comedy and pathos. —Katie Walsh, Twin Cities, 31 May 2024

Goldwyn’s direction is sure-handed in navigating the complicated tone that tiptoes through comedy and pathos. —Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 30 May 2024

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Greek páthos "experience, misfortune, emotion, condition," noun derivative of a verbal base path- "experience, undergo, suffer" (present páschō, páschein, aorist épathon), going back to *p^(h)nt^h-, zero ablaut grade of a base seen also in pénthos "grief, sorrow," of uncertain origin

Note: The Greek verb has been compared with Lithuanian kentù, kę͂sti "to undergo, suffer" (assuming that t for d is secondary) and Old Irish césaid "(s/he) suffers, endures" (< *k^wendh-s-?), though this would require Indo-European *k^wendh-, with a normally unacceptable combination of voiceless stop and voiced aspirated stop in a single root. Alternatively, Greek path-, penth- has been explained as an idiosyncratic semantic development of Indo-European *bhendh- "bind" ("be bound" > "suffer"?) (see bind entry 1).

First Known Use

1591, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

pathos

noun

pa·​thos ˈpā-ˌthäs  -ˌthȯs 

: an element in life or in artistic representation of it that moves one to pity