ethos

Etymology

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

noun

1. 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. 2011-10-26, Brook Larmer, “Where an Internet Joke Is Not Just a Joke”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
   As we saw with Housing Problems, this 'telling one's own story' is an ethos Edgar Anstey would have applauded, and it was an ethos that has fed into Network Rail's work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Green explains: "COVID has produced huge challenges for us, but it showed there is such a need for film-making at a time like this." March 10 2021, Greg Morse, “Telling the railway's story on film”, in RAIL, number 926, page 49
2. (rhetoric) 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.
3. (art) 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.