bathos

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάθος (báthos, “depth”). Employed ironically following Alexander Pope's Peri Bathous, lampooning various errors in contemporary writers.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈbeɪθɒs/

Noun

bathos (uncountable)

1. Overdone or treacly attempts to inspire pathos.
   • 1847, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, page 192:

     I like you more than I can say; but I'll not sink into a bathos of sentiment...

2. (now uncommon) Depth.
   • 1638, Robert Sanderson, "A sermon preached at Newport in the Isle of Wight", II.101:

     There is such a height, and depth, and length, and breadth in that love; such a βάθος in every dimension of it.

3. (literature, the arts) Risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to
   1. anticlimax: an abrupt transition in style or subject from high to low.
   2. banality: unaffectingly cliché or trite treatment of a topic.
   3. immaturity: lack of serious treatment of a topic.
   4. hyperbole: excessiveness
   • 1727, Alexander Pope, Peri Bathous:

     While a plain and direct Road is pav'd to their ὐψος, or sublime; no Track has been yet chalk'd out to arrive at our βάθος, or profund.

4. (literature, the arts) The ironic use of such failure for satiric or humorous effect.
5. (uncommon) A nadir, a low point particularly in one's career.
   • 1814, Thomas Jefferson, Writings, IV.240:

     How meanly has he closed his inflated career! What a sample of the bathos will his history present!

Further reading

• bathos on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• bathos at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• TAH-BSO