ethos

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   (anthropology) the distinctive spirit of a culture or an era

   the Greek ethos

2. 2
   noun

   The character or fundamental values of a person, people, culture, or movement.

   To slip past censors, Chinese bloggers have become masters of comic subterfuge, cloaking their messages in protective layers of irony and satire. This is not a new concept, but it has erupted so powerfully that it now defines the ethos of the Internet in China.

3. 3
   noun

   A form of rhetoric in which the writer or speaker invokes their authority, competence or expertise in an attempt to persuade others that their view is correct.

4. 4
   noun

   The traits in a work of art which express the ideal or typic character, as influenced by the ethos (character or fundamental values) of a people, rather than emotional situations or individual character traits in a narrow sense; opposed to pathos.

Etymology

From Ancient Greek ἦθος (êthos, “character; custom, habit”). Cognate to Sanskrit स्वधा (svadhā́, “habit, custom”).