Word.ws English Dictionary

pathetism

pathetism noun: mesmerism; hypnosis.

Noun

pathetism (uncountable)

  1. (archaic) mesmerism; hypnosis
    • From the foregoing pages it will have been seen, that by what I denominate pathetism, is meant susceptibility to the influence of an agency which is concerned in every feeling or emotion , or passion , or action which was ever felt1843, La Roy Sunderland, Pathetism: With Practical Instructions

Origin of pathetism

Compare French pathétisme.

Questions about pathetism

What does pathetism mean?
Pathetism means mesmerism; hypnosis.
What part of speech is pathetism?
Pathetism is a noun.

Words near pathetism in the dictionary

  1. patheticly
  2. patheticness
  3. pathetics
  4. pathetique
  5. pathetisad
  6. pathetism
  7. pathetist
  8. pathetists
  9. pathetize
  10. pathetized
  11. pathetizer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pathetism (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “pathetism.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pathetism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.