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Phatic Has Greek Roots
Phatic was coined in the early 20th century by people who apparently wanted to label a particular quirk of human communication-the tendency to use certain rote phrases (such as the standard greeting "how are you?") merely to establish a social connection without sharing any actual information. It probably won't surprise you, then, to learn that phatic derives from the Greek phatos, a form of the verb phanai, meaning "to speak." Other descendants of "phanai" in English include "apophasis" ("the raising of an issue by claiming not to mention it"), "euphemism," "prophet," and the combining suffix -phasia (used to denote a speech disorder). You may also have spotted a similarity to "emphatic," but that turns out to be purely coincidence; "emphatic" traces back to a different Greek verb which means "to show."
Examples of phatic in a Sentence
Bryan A. Garner, National Review, 10 June 2021
And second, in so doing, the performance opens the door to a new kind of phatic greeting.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 28 Oct. 2022
Those kinds of phatic greetings don’t really concern themselves with an interlocutor’s state of being or mind, but simply exercise etiquette and social courtesy.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 28 Oct. 2022
Thanks to the acquisition of an artificial intelligence company in Cambridge, England, called Evi, Alexa was already proficient in the culturally common chitchat called phatic speech.
—Brad Stone, Wired, 11 May 2021
Those greetings are but a few examples of phatic language from Early Modern English (1500 to 1699).
—Bryan A. Garner, National Review, 10 June 2021
Then the rest of the interchange floods with phatic channel-management.
—Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 29 Mar. 2021
Cite this Entry
“Phatic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phatic. Accessed 3 May. 2025.
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