ethos

/ee"thos, ee"thohs, eth"os, -ohs/, n.

1. Sociol. the fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period: In the Greek ethos the individual was highly valued.

2. the character or disposition of a community, group, person, etc.

3. the moral element in dramatic literature that determines a character's action rather than his or her thought or emotion.

[1850-55; < Gk: custom, habit, character]

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▪ arts

Greek:“disposition” or “character”

      in rhetoric, the character or emotions of a speaker or writer that are expressed in the attempt to persuade an audience. It is distinguished from pathos, which is the emotion the speaker or writer hopes to induce in the audience. The two words were distinguished in a broader sense by ancient Classical authors, who used pathos when referring to the violent emotions and ethos to mean the calmer ones. Ethos was the natural disposition or moral character, an abiding quality, and pathos a temporary and often violent emotional state. For Renaissance writers the distinction was a different one: ethos described character and pathos an emotional appeal.

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