pathetic fallacy

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

pathet′ic fal′lacy, 

1. Fine Art, Literature the endowment of nature, inanimate objects, etc., with human traits and feelings, as in the smiling skies;
   the angry sea.

• coined by John Ruskin in Modern Painters Vol. III, Part IV (1856)

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

pathetic fallacy noun

1. (in literature) the presentation of inanimate objects in nature as possessing human feelings