phatic

From Ancient Greek φατός (phatós, “spoken”) - from φημί (phēmí, “I say”) - +‎ -ic.

Probably formally influenced by emphatic, which predates this term.

• IPA^(key): /ˈfætɪk/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ætɪk

phatic (comparative more phatic, superlative most phatic)

1. (linguistics) Pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship and whose meaning is otherwise either deemphasized or absent.

   You needn't be angry about the insincerity of shopkeepers' how-are-you greetings. Well-adjusted people understand that the question is phatic in the context and that that's usually no problem.

   Some dialects of a language may use a certain term or phrase in a phatic way, even if other dialects don't.

   • 1978, Anthony Burgess, 1985:

     Generally speaking, statements in WE are expected to be of a tautologous nature, thus fulfilling the essential phatic nature of speech.

   • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 467:

     Dispensing with phatic chitchat, he began straightaway to tell the story of his “people.”

• phatic communion

phatic (plural phatics)

1. (linguistics) A phatic utterance.

• -pathic, haptic, pathic