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pathetic

Etymology and origin of the English word pathetic

History Permalink
Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1573
Borrowed from
Middle French pathétique
Ultimate origin
Ancient Greek (πάσχω)

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /pəˈθɛtɪk/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French pathétique (“moving, stirring”),[2][3][4] from Late Latin patheticus, from Greek παθητικός (pathētikós, “sensitive, capable of feeling”),[3][2] from pathētós, liable to suffer, from the stem of páskhein, to suffer (see pathos),[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *kwent(h)- (“to suffer”).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Affecting the emotions, moving: pathetical 1573,[2] pathetique 1598, in Marston's The Scourge of Villainy.[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The broad sense, moving or stirring, is now obsolete.[3][5] Passionate, earnest, is an obsolete sense of 1648,[5] and of the passions of the mind from 1649.[5] Both the spelling pathetic and the meaning arousing pity are first recorded in 1737, in Pope.[2][5][3] The pathetic fallacy, the attribution of human feelings to nature, was first used by Ruskin in 1856.[3] The colloquial sense, so miserable or inadequate as to be ridiculous, is attested by 1937.[3][6]

Timeline

  • 1573 – pathetical.[2]
  • 1598 – moving (obsolete).[2]
  • 1737 – arousing pity.[2]
  • 1856 – pathetic fallacy.[3]
  • 1937 – contemptibly inadequate.[3]

Modern meaning

Adjective

  1. Arousing pity, sympathy or sorrow.
  2. Pitifully inadequate.
  3. (British, informal) Contemptibly worthless or uninteresting.

Word family

  • pathetically
  • pathetical
  • patheticalness
  • hyperpathetic
  • pathetic fallacy

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Pathetic.” Etymologically, 16 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/pathetic. Accessed 16 Oct. 2026.

Last edited on . ·