patheticus

Forms

pathēticus (feminine pathētica, neuter pathēticum, adverb pathēticē); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παθητικός (pathētikós, “sensitive, capable of feeling”),^[1][2][3] from the family of πάθος (páthos, “emotion, suffering”).^[3] Cicero still writes the word in Greek letters when he names the emotional kind of oratory.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Latin letters it first appears in Quintilian (c. 35–95/96 AD),^[4][3] who speaks of proofs “that they call pathetic”, drawn from the emotions.^[4]

Semantic evolution

It was a term of rhetoric: the rhetorician Fortunatianus counts a genus patheticum, the kind of case that stirs the mind as tragedies do,^[4] and Claudius Donatus says that speech in a pathetic passage must be short.^[4] Macrobius applies it to emotional speech and has the adverb pathēticē.^[2][4] Medieval manuscripts often write it patet-, and it was confused with pathicus.^[4]

In British Medieval Latin Aldhelm used it in grammar for a word that can be modified.^[5] Through French pathétique it passed into English as pathetic in the 1590s, first meaning “moving, stirring the feelings”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 35–95/96 AD – Quintilian uses it of proofs drawn from the emotions.^[4][3]
• first half of the 5th century AD – Macrobius uses it and its adverb of emotional passages.^[2][3]
• 671 – Aldhelm uses it as a grammatical term.^[5]
• 1590s – English borrows pathetic through French.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (rhetoric) emotional, suited to stir or express the feelings; pathetic in the old sense of “moving”.^[4][2][7]
2. (Medieval Latin, grammar) Of a word that can be modified.^[5]

Word family

• pathēticē

Related words

• English pathetic

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
5. ^ a b c Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.