Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Arousing or deserving of sympathetic sadness and compassion.
  • adjective Arousing or deserving of scornful pity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Trochlear: in reference to the superior oblique muscle.
  • noun Same as patheticus, 2.
  • Expressing or showing passion; passionate.
  • Full of pathos; affecting or moving the feelings; exciting pity, sorrow, grief, or other tender emotion; affecting: as, a pathetic song or discourse; pathetic expostulation.
  • In anatomy, trochlear: in designation of or reference to the fourth crania1 nerve.
  • noun A trochlear or pathetic nerve; a patheticus.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Expressing or showing anger; passionate.
  • adjective Affecting or moving the tender emotions, esp. pity or grief; full of pathos.
  • adjective (Anat.) the superior oblique muscle of the eye.
  • adjective (Anat.) the fourth cranial, or trochlear, nerve, which supplies the superior oblique, or pathetic, muscle of the eye.
  • adjective a style or manner adapted to arouse the tender emotions.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion.
  • adjective Arousing scornful pity or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective inspiring mixed contempt and pity
  • adjective inspiring scornful pity
  • adjective deserving or inciting pity

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French pathétique, from Late Latin pathēticus, from Greek pathētikos, sensitive, from pathētos, liable to suffer, from pathos, suffering; see kwent(h)- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin patheticus, from Ancient Greek παθητικός (pathetikos, "subject to feeling, capable of feeling, impassioned"), from παθητός (pathetos, "one who has suffered, subject to suffering"), from πάσχω (paskho, "to suffer").

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Examples

Comments

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  • 1) Ridiculous

    2) From Greek "Pathos = Pain", which causes pain.

    January 5, 2011