Phatic Definition
fătĭk
adjective
Of, constituting, or given to formulaic talk or meaningless sounds that are used merely to establish social contact rather than to communicate ideas.
Phatic expression.
Webster's New World
(linguistics) Pertaining to words used to convey any kind of social relationship e.g polite mood, rather than meaning; for example, "How are you?" is often not a literal question but is said only as a greeting. (Similarly, a response such as "Fine" is often not an accurate answer, but merely an acknowledgement of the greeting.)
Wiktionary
Origin of Phatic
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From Greek phatos spoken from phanai to speak –phasia
From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Ancient Greek φατός (phatos, “spoken"), from φημί (phÄ“mi, “I say")
From Wiktionary
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