pathetic
pronunciation
How to pronounce pathetic in British English:
UK [pəˈθetɪk]
How to pronounce pathetic in American English:
US [pəˈθetɪk]
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- Adjective:
- deserving or inciting pity
- inspiring mixed contempt and pity
- inspiring scornful pity
Word Origin
- pathetic (adj.)
- 1590s, "affecting the emotions, exciting the passions," from Middle French pathétique "moving, stirring, affecting" (16c.), from Late Latin patheticus, from Greek pathetikos "subject to feeling, sensitive, capable of emotion," from pathetos "liable to suffer," verbal adjective of pathein "to suffer" (see pathos). Meaning "arousing pity, pitiful" is first recorded 1737. Colloquial sense of "so miserable as to be ridiculous" is attested from 1937. Related: Pathetical (1570s); pathetically. Pathetic fallacy (1856, first used by Ruskin) is the attribution of human qualities to inanimate objects.
Synonym
Example
- 1. He was a bit pathetic and so I asked him in .
- 2. De botton thought the whole thing pretty pathetic too .
- 3. Most pathetic was the idea that dressing casually helped you to be creative .
- 4. I 'd slaughter the lot of you if you weren 't so pathetic !
- 5. But saying sorry makes them feel a bit pathetic .