Pathetic, a.
Etymology: [L. patheticus, Gr. pathétique. See Pathos.]
1. Expressing or showing anger; passionate. [Obs.]
2. Affecting or moving the tender emotions, esp. pity or grief; full of pathos; as, a pathetic song or story. "Pathetic action." Macaulay. No theory of the passions can teach a man to be pathetic. E. Porter. Pathetic muscle (Anat.), the superior oblique muscle of the eye. -- Pathetic nerve (Anat.), the fourth cranial, or trochlear, nerve, which supplies the superior oblique, or pathetic, muscle of the eye. -- The pathetic, a style or manner adapted to arouse the tender emotions.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for pathetic; he lists it under pitiful.
He lists it without comment; the entries above explain its neighbors.