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The word for today is…

pathos (noun):

1 : an element in experience or in artistic representation evoking pity or compassion
2 : an emotion of sympathetic pity

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology : The Greek word pathos means “experience, misfortune, emotion, condition,” and comes from Greek path-, meaning “experience, undergo, suffer.” In English, pathos usually refers to the element in an experience or in an artistic work that makes us feel compassion, pity, or sympathy. The word is a member of a big family: empathy is the ability to share someone else’s feelings. Pathetic (in its gentlest uses) describes things that move us to pity. Though pathology is not literally “the study of suffering,” it is “the study of diseases.” Other relatives of pathos include sympathy, apathy, and antipathy.

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