Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913
Pathetic
Pa·thet′ic (pȧ·thĕt′ĭk), a. [L. patheticus, Gr. παθητικός, fr. παθεῖν, πάσχειν, to suffer: cf. F. pathétique. See Pathos.] 1. Expressing or showing anger; passionate. [Obs.]
2. Affecting or moving the tender emotions, esp. pity or grief; full of pathos; as, a pathetic song or story. "Pathetic action." Macaulay.
No theory of the passions can teach a man to be pathetic. E. Porter.
Pathetic muscle (Anat.), the superior oblique muscle of the eye. — Pathetic nerve (Anat.), the fourth cranial, or trochlear, nerve, which supplies the superior oblique, or pathetic, muscle of the eye. — The pathetic, a style or manner adapted to arouse the tender emotions.