"pathetic fallacy" meaning in All languages combined

See pathetic fallacy on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: pathetic fallacies [plural]
Etymology: Coined by British cultural critic John Ruskin in 1856 in his work Modern Painters. Here, fallacy does not refer to a logical fallacy, but should be understood as “a falsehood, something that is untrue”, while pathetic here means “caused by an excited state of the feelings”; thus, "emotional misrepresentation", not "contemptible illogic". Etymology templates: {{coin|en|John Ruskin|in=1856|nat=British|nocat=1|occ=cultural critic}} Coined by British cultural critic John Ruskin in 1856 Head templates: {{en-noun}} pathetic fallacy (plural pathetic fallacies)
  1. A metaphor which consists in treating inanimate objects or concepts as if they were human beings, for instance having thoughts or feelings. Wikipedia link: Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, Modern Painters, pathetic fallacy Categories (topical): Figures of speech Related terms: personification, anthropomorphism, reification
    Sense id: en-pathetic_fallacy-en-noun-zRaZ5iiK Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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