bathos
Pronunciation: /ˈbeɪθɒs/
The English word “bathos” has 8 meanings listed here.
noun
- Overdone or treacly attempts to inspire pathos.
- A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to
- An anticlimax: an abrupt transition in style or subject from high to low.
- A banality: an unaffectingly clichéd or trite treatment of a topic.
- Immaturity: a lack of serious treatment of a topic.
- A hyperbole: excessiveness.
- The ironic use of such failure for satiric or humorous effect.
- A nadir, a low point particularly in one's career.
Etymology
Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάθος (báthos, “depth”). Employed ironically following Alexander Pope's Peri Bathous, lampooning various errors in contemporary writers.
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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.