pathos

Definitions

The Greek root word itself, borrowed whole into English. Pathos is 'feeling' in its rawest form — the power of a scene or speaker to make an audience ache. In classical rhetoric it stands beside ethos (credibility) and logos (logic) as the appeal to emotion.

Why It Means This

Pathos is the ancestor of the whole family, sitting un-prefixed at the head of the table. In Greek it simply meant 'what one feels or suffers.' English keeps it as a literary and rhetorical term: the pathos of a scene is its power to move you to pity. Add prefixes and you get sym-pathy, em-pathy, anti-pathy — all just pathos pointed in a direction.

Common Collocations

• 1.deep pathos深刻的悲怆感
• 2.emotional pathos情感悲怆
• 3.artistic pathos艺术悲怆感

Example Sentences

• 1.

  There is real pathos in the old man's final speech.

• 2.

  The photograph captures the pathos of life in the camps.

• 3.

  Good speakers balance logic with pathos.