pathetic fallacy


noun

the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies; the angry sea.

Origin of pathetic fallacy

coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters Vol. III, Part IV (1856)

British Dictionary definitions for pathetic fallacy

pathetic fallacy

noun

(in literature) the presentation of inanimate objects in nature as possessing human feelings