1660s, "quality that arouses pity or sorrow"
from Greek pathos, meaning:Hearing of pathos, most don't consider this primary meaning ("modification of words"). See the notes, after the definitions, for added elucidation.
Aristotle's "Ars Rhetorica" is one of the most known treaties on pathos.
Pathos, along with logos and ethos, is one of the three "modes of persuasion" in rhetoric ("the art of using language to influence others").
Pathos is an argument that appeals to the audience's emotions. When a speaker tells a personal story, presents an audience with a powerful visual image, or appeals to an audience's sense of duty or purpose in order to influence listeners' emotions in favor of adopting the speaker's point of view, they are using pathos.
~☉~ | lucid definition; added layer of lucidity, or aethereal context |
⚜ | classic definition |
☣ | artificium definition; usually words which have undergone a warped evolution, or a complete perversion of the original sense |