| pathetic | 1. Expressing or showing anger; passionate. 2. Affecting or moving the tender emotions, especially. Pity or grief; full of pathos; as, a pathetic song or story. "Pathetic action." "No theory of the passions can teach a man to be pathetic." (E. <anatomy> Porter) Pathetic muscle, 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. Origin: L. Patheticus, Gr, fr, to suffer: cf. F. Pathetique. See Pathos. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| pathetic nerve | <anatomy, nerve> The trochlear nerve controls an extraocular muscle. Lesions of this nerve will result in rotation of the eyeball upward and outward (and double vision). Synonym: cranial nerve IV. (27 Sep 1997) |