bathos
/ˈbeɪθɒs
/noun [mass noun]
(Especially in a literary work) an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous: his epic poem has passages of almost embarrassing bathos a nice balance between the colloquial, which might have led to bathos, and an over-polished style...
- But in fact, despite my scientific interest in describing languages as they actually are, I am as free as anyone else to have negative reactions to unintentional bathos or unhelpful confusion caused by bad writing.
- Not everything he does works, but Antopolski deliberately uses anticlimax and bathos in his material.
- To Swan's credit, she deftly skirts sentimentality; there is plenty of sentiment, but no bathos.
Synonyms
anticlimax, let-down, disappointment, disillusionment;
mawkishness, sentimentality
informal comedown
Origin
Mid 17th century (first recorded in the Greek sense): from Greek, literally 'depth'. The current sense was introduced by Alexander Pope in the early 18th century.
This is a Greek word and was first recorded in English in the literal Greek sense ‘depth’. The literary sense was introduced by Alexander Pope in the early 18th century. He published the Bathos in the Miscellanies (third volume) in 1728, which was a lively satire giving descriptions of bad authors, identified by initials. Bathyspere [1930] for a spherical chamber that can be lowered into the depths of the sea, comes from the same source.