Footway so untidy as to suggest pitiableness (6)
I believe the answer is:
pathos
'pitiableness' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'footway so untidy' is the wordplay.
'footway' becomes 'path' (I've seen this before).
'untidy' indicates an anagram.
'so' with letters rearranged gives 'os'.
'path'+'os'='PATHOS'
'as to suggest' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pathos that I've seen before include "Hot spa (anag) - sadness" , "Quality arousing pity" , "Quality that arouses pity or sadness" , "Quality of attracting pity" , "feeling of pity" .)