patetic

Forms

patetic m or n (feminine singular patetică, masculine plural patetici, feminine/neuter plural patetice)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French pathétique;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} DEX, MDA2 and the DLR also name German pathetisch as a source;^{[2][3][4][5][6]} MDN and DN add Latin patheticus.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Tiktin and Wiktionary give French alone.^[7][1] The French word, recorded from 1584, and the German, from the early 17th century, are both from Late Latin patheticus, from Ancient Greek παθητικός (pathētikós, “capable of feeling, moving”), a derivative of πάθος (páthos, “suffering, passion”).^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a text of Heliade of 1831: „la ideea unui obiect patetic..., simtimenturile se nasc mulțime” “at the idea of a moving object… feelings arise in crowds”.^[7][4] Negulici defined it in 1848 as stirring the passions, touching, sad.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, full of pathos, moving, is joined in the DLR's quotations by the sense full of affectation and bombast.^[4][2] Used as an adverb it means in a moving or emphatic manner.^[3][11] Anatomy took it for the nerve that supplies the oblique muscles of the eye, as French did, and aesthetics for the quality of a work that stirs strong emotion, used as a neuter noun.^[2][5][8]

Timeline

• 1831 – in a text of Heliade, the first record.^[7]
• 1838 – stil... patetic, sentimental, comic in a literary periodical.^[4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[10]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it with French pathétique.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Full of patos; moving, touching; also full of affectation or emfază.^[2][3]
2. (anatomy) Of a nerve: supplying the oblique muscles of the eye.^[2][5]

Adverb

1. In a moving or emphatic manner: a vorbit patetic.^[3][11]

Noun

1. (neuter, aesthetics) The pathetic: the quality of a situation or a work of art that stirs strong emotion.^[5][6]

Related words

• patos
• French pathétique

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 782
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 283
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. patetic
5. ^ a b c d e f Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. patetic
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. 308
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 338
12. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 262