pəˈthed.]ik, -et], ]ēk adjective
also pa·thet·i·cal ]ə̇kəl, ]ēk-\
Etymology: Middle French or Late Latin; Middle French pathetique, from Late Latin patheticus, from Greek pathētikos capable of feeling, sensitive, pathetic, from pathētos subject to suffering, liable to external influence (from path-, stem of paschein to experience, suffer) + -ikos -ic, -ical — more at pathos
1. obsolete
a. : exciting or stirring emotion or passion
b. : marked by strong emotion : passionate
2.
a. : evoking tenderness, pity, sympathy, or sorrow : affecting , pitiable
looked old and pathetic — Ruth Park
a pathetic confusion between knowledge and guesswork — M.R.Cohen
pathetic and misdirected efforts to be one's true self — Sara H. Hay
b. : marked by sorrow, suffering, or melancholy : sad
mingling playful with pathetic thoughts — William Wordsworth
you may be gentle and pathetic , or savage and cynical with perfect propriety — W.M.Thackeray
the eloquent phrases I had arranged, pathetic or indignant, seemed out of place — W.S.Maugham
3. : of or relating to the superior oblique muscle or the trochlear nerve
Synonyms: see moving