What I mean is that with its blunt authority the New Oxford definition of "pathos" -- "a quality that evokes pity or sadness" -- shuts down the conversation, it shuts down your thinking about the word, while the Webster's version gets your wheels turning: it seems so much more provisional -- "that which awakens tender emotions, such as pity,... See more

I'm not sure why you won't find writing like that in dictionaries these days, but you won't.