Where Does the Word Pathetically Come from?

Pathetic can be traced back further to the Greek pathētikos, meaning “capable of feeling.” It was preceded, slightly, by the related pathetical (which has the same meaning as the early senses of pathetic, but seem to have fallen out of use before taking on the “absurd” or “inadequate” ones) and pathetically.

Who invented the word pathetic?

The term was coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters (1843–60).

When was the word pathetic invented?

pathetic (adj.)

The colloquial sense of "so miserable as to be ridiculous" is attested by 1937.