pathetic [L16th] ‘Affecting the emotions’ was the early sense of pathetic which came via late Latin from Greek pathētikos ‘sensitive’, based on pathos ‘suffering, disease, feeling’ (L16th in English). Apathy [E17th] is from apathēs ‘without feeling’, and empathy (from em- ‘in’ and pathos ‘feeling’) was coined by physiologists in the early 20th century. Sympathy [L16th] comes via Latin from Greek sum ‘with’ and pathos, while pathology [L16th] came into English from post-classical Latin pathologia ‘branch of knowledge dealing with emotions, study of disease’ formed from pathos ‘and -logy used to indicate a science.