pathos Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a quality that arouses emotions (especially pity or sorrow)
    poignancy.
    • the film captured all the pathos of their situation
  2. noun a feeling of sympathy and sorrow for the misfortunes of others
    pity; commiseration; ruth.
    • the blind are too often objects of pity
  3. noun a style that has the power to evoke feelings

WordNet

Pa"thos noun
Etymology
L., from Gr. a suffering, passion, fr. , , to suffer; cf. toil, L. pati to suffer, E. patient.
Definitions
  1. That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality; as, the pathos of a picture, of a poem, or of a cry.
    The combination of incident, and the pathos of catastrophe. T. Warton.

Webster 1913