pathos

Meaning

1. 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.
2. A writer or speaker's attempt to persuade an audience through appeals involving the use of strong emotions such as pity.
3. An author's attempt to evoke a feeling of pity or sympathetic sorrow for a character.
4. 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.
5. Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.

Concepts

pathos

pity

compassion

passion

emotion

affection

affectivity

empathy

sympathy

grief

sorrow

poignancy

sensibility

feeling

commiseration

ruth

helpless

misery

bitterness

suffering

pitiableness

sadness

sentimentality

kick

pulse

thrill

feelings

will

sensitivity

impression

sorrowfulness

sad feeling

pitiful

poor

sad

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpeɪˌθɒs/

Etymology

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