PATHETIC

pathetic, ridiculous, silly

(adjective) inspiring scornful pity; “how silly an ardent and unsuccessful wooer can be especially if he is getting on in years”- Dashiell Hammett

pathetic, pitiable, pitiful

(adjective) inspiring mixed contempt and pity; “their efforts were pathetic”; “pitiable lack of character”; “pitiful exhibition of cowardice”

hapless, miserable, misfortunate, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, wretched

(adjective) deserving or inciting pity; “a hapless victim”; “miserable victims of war”; “the shabby room struck her as extraordinarily pathetic”- Galsworthy; “piteous appeals for help”; “pitiable homeless children”; “a pitiful fate”; “Oh, you poor thing”; “his poor distorted limbs”; “a wretched life”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Adjective

pathetic (comparative more pathetic, superlative most pathetic)

Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion.

Arousing scornful pity or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.

(obsolete) Expressing or showing anger; passionate.

(anatomy) Trochlear.

Synonyms

• (arousing pity): pitiful, wretched, miserable, deplorable, pathetisad

• (arousing scorn): disgraceful, shameful, despicable, dishonorable

Source: Wiktionary

Pa*thet"ic, a. Etym: [L. patheticus, Gr. 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.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition