Please, if you don't get anything else out of this thread........ it's "pathetic"!
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
Main Entry: pa?thet?ic
Pronunciation: p&-'the-tik
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle French or Late Latin; Middle French pathetique, from Late Latin patheticus, from Greek pathEtikos capable of feeling, pathetic, from paschein (aorist pathein) to experience, suffer -- more at PATHOS
1 : having a capacity to move one to either compassionate or contemptuous pity
2 : marked by sorrow or melancholy : SAD
3 : pitifully inferior or inadequate <the restaurant's pathetic service>
4 : ABSURD, LAUGHABLE <a pathetic costume>
synonym see MOVING
5 : SEE ILLUSTRATION
- pa?thet?i?cal /-ti-k&l/ adjective
- pa?thet?i?cal?ly /-ti-k(&-)lE/ adverb