Pathos /(pā"thŏs)/

Pa·thos

Pathos

n.
  1. That quality or property of anything which touches the feelings or excites emotions and passions, esp., that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity, sorrow, and the like; contagious warmth of feeling, action, or expression; pathetic quality; as, the pathos of a picture, of a poem, or of a cry.
    The combination of incident, and the pathos of catastrophe.
    — T. Warton.
  2. The quality or character of those emotions, traits, or experiences which are personal, and therefore restricted and evanescent; transitory and idiosyncratic dispositions or feelings as distinguished from those which are universal and deep-seated in character; -- opposed to ethos.
  3. Suffering; the enduring of active stress or affliction.