different between unhappy vs pathetic

English

Etymology

un- +? happy

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?hæpi/
• Rhymes: -æpi

Adjective

unhappy (comparative unhappier or more unhappy, superlative unhappiest or most unhappy)

1. Not happy; sad.
   • 1728, John Gay, The Beggar's Opera

     A moment of time may make us unhappy forever.

2. Not satisfied; unsatisfied.

   An unhappy customer is unlikely to return to your shop.

3. (chiefly dated) Not lucky; unlucky.

   The doomed lovers must have been born under an unhappy star.
4. (chiefly dated) Not suitable; unsuitable.
   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     The people, if they are not strangely bent
     Against our welfare, never will consent
     To this unhappy match, foreboding ill:
     What's it to us, if th' adverse nation will?

Synonyms

• (not happy): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable

Antonyms

• happy
• glad
• delighted
• exuberant
• joyous
• joyful

Translations

Noun

unhappy (plural unhappies)

1. An individual who is not happy.
   • 1972, The New Yorker (volume 48, part 1, page 109)

     Leduc, as is true of many other unhappies, is largely a confessional writer: her subject is herself, and her gift is a driving, vivacious power that turns her incurable, inveterate unhappiness into a series of dramas […]

Middle English

Noun

unhappy

1. unhap

English

Alternative forms

• pathetick (archaic)
• patheticke (obsolete)
• pathetique (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle French pathétique, from Latin patheticus, from Ancient Greek ????????? (path?tikós, “subject to feeling, capable of feeling, impassioned”), from ??????? (path?tós, “one who has suffered, subject to suffering”), from ????? (páskh?, “to suffer”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p????t?k/
• Rhymes: -?t?k

Adjective

pathetic (comparative more pathetic, superlative most pathetic)

1. Arousing pity, sympathy, or compassion; exciting pathos.

   The child’s pathetic pleas for forgiveness stirred the young man’s heart.

   • 1883: George Reynolds, "History of the Book of Mormon: Contents of the Records, II," Contributor

     We have now arrived at one of the most pathetic and glorious events in the history of Israel, one which sanctifies the Lamanite race with the powers of martyrdom, and, by the blood of the victims, washes its garments white from many a former sin.
2. Arousing scorn or contempt, often due to miserable inadequacy.

   You can't even run two miles? That’s pathetic.

   You're almost 26 years old and you still can't hold a real job? That's pathetic.
3. (obsolete) Expressing or showing anger; passionate.
4. (anatomy) Trochlear.

Synonyms

• (arousing pity): pitiful, wretched, miserable, deplorable, pathetisad
• (arousing scorn): disgraceful, shameful, despicable, dishonorable

Derived terms

• patheticism
• patheticness
• pathetics

Related terms

• pathos

Translations

Further reading

• pathetic in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• pathetic in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.