pathetic

• pathetick (archaic)
• patheticke (obsolete)
• pathetique (obsolete)

From Middle French pathétique, from Latin patheticus, from Ancient Greek παθητικός (pathētikós, “subject to feeling, capable of feeling, impassioned”), from παθητός (pathētós, “one who has suffered, subject to suffering”), from πάσχω (páskhō, “to suffer”).

• IPA^(key): /pəˈθɛtɪk/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛtɪk

pathetic (comparative more pathetic, superlative most pathetic)

1. Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion.

   The child’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.

2. Arousing scornful pity or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.

   You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic.

   You're almost 26 years old and you still can't hold a real job? That's pathetic.

   • 2005, In Her Shoes:

     Well you'd better think of something because middle-aged tramps aren't cute, they're pathetic.

   • 2014, John Oliver, “State Legislatures and ALEC”, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 1, episode 23, written by Tim Carvell; Josh Gondelman; Dan Gurewitch; Jeff Maurer; Ben Silva; Will Tracy; Jill Twiss; Seena Vali; Julie Weiner, HBO, Warner Bros. Television:

     Look, I-I hate to sound like Billy Baldwin’s agent, but you can’t just copy everything that ALEC does! It’s pathetic!”

3. (obsolete) Expressing or showing anger; passionate.
4. (anatomy) Trochlear.

• (arousing pity): pitiful, wretched, miserable, deplorable, pathetisad
• (arousing scorn): disgraceful, shameful, despicable, dishonorable

• patheticism
• patheticness
• pathetics

• pathos

• pathetic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pathetic in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.