ba·thos

(bā′thŏs′, -thôs′)

a. An abrupt, presumably unintended juxtaposition of the exalted and the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect.

b. An anticlimax.

a. Insincere or grossly sentimental pathos: "a richly textured man who ... can be ... sentimental to the brink of bathos" (Kenneth L. Woodward).

b. Banality; triteness.

[Greek, depth, from bathus, deep.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

bathos

(ˈbeɪθɒs)

1. (Literary & Literary Critical Terms) a sudden ludicrous descent from exalted to ordinary matters or style in speech or writing

2. insincere or excessive pathos

3. triteness; flatness

4. the lowest point; nadir

[C18: from Greek: depth, from bathus deep]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ba•thos

(ˈbeɪ θɒs, -θɔs, -θoʊs)

n.

1. a ludicrous descent from the exalted or lofty to the commonplace; anticlimax.

2. insincere pathos; sentimentality.

3. triteness in style.

[1630–40; < Greek: depth]

bathos

Sudden change from the exalted to the ridiculous or banal.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	bathos - triteness or triviality of style expressive style, style - a way of expressing something (in language or art or music etc.) that is characteristic of a particular person or group of people or period; "all the reporters were expected to adopt the style of the newspaper"
	2.	bathos - insincere pathos mawkishness sentimentality - extravagant or affected feeling or emotion
	3.	bathos - a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one anticlimax story - a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events; "he writes stories for the magazines" close, closing, ending, conclusion, end - the last section of a communication; "in conclusion I want to say..."

bathos

noun anticlimax, disappointment, sentimentality, letdown, comedown (informal), mawkishness, false pathos There was an element of bathos about the much-acclaimed speech.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

bathos

noun

The quality or condition of being affectedly or overly emotional:

maudlinism, mawkishness, sentimentalism, sentimentality.

Informal: mush, mushiness, schmaltz, schmaltziness, sloppiness.

Slang: sappiness.

Translations

discesa al banale

bathos

[ˈbeɪθɒs] N → paso m de lo sublime a lo trivial

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

bathos

n (= anticlimax) → Abfall or Umschlag m → ins Lächerliche; (= sentimentality) → falsches Pathos

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Nor is it difficult to perceive the tendency of this abandon-to elevate immeasurably all the energies of mind-but, again, so to mingle the greatest possible fire, force, delicacy, and all good things, with the lowest possible bathos, baldness, and imbecility, as to render it not a matter of doubt that the average results of mind in such a school will be found inferior to those results in one (ceteris paribus) more artificial.

View in context

As a genius of the highest rank observes in his fifth chapter of the Bathos, "The great art of all poetry is to mix truth with fiction, in order to join the credible with the surprizing."

View in context

You have no right to disturb those charming memories by attempting to turn them into bathos."

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Sophia must surely get them out of the guide-book (where every church is spoken of as being "considered by good judges to be the most marvelous structure, in many respects, that the world has ever seen.") Or else they are those old connoisseurs from the wilds of New Jersey who laboriously learn the difference between a fresco and a fire-plug and from that day forward feel privileged to void their critical bathos on painting, sculpture and architecture forever more.

View in context

His soul danced with joy at that picture of starvation which is so good-humoured, of squalor which is so picturesque, of sordid love which is so romantic, of bathos which is so moving.

View in context

In this time of weakness and depression he would have made it his medicine and support, his comforter, his recreation, and his friend, and thereby sunk deeper and deeper, and bound himself down for ever in the bathos whereinto he had fallen.

View in context

And he'll never be able to emerge from his bathos of coarseness and ignorance.

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And instinct telling him that he had made his supreme effort, and that anything further must be bathos, he turned abruptly and stalked into his cottage, where he drank tea and ate bacon and thought chaotic thoughts.

View in context

Glegg, rising to get her knitting with the sense that any further remark after this would be bathos.

View in context

I like you more than I can say; but I'll not sink into a bathos of sentiment: and with this needle of repartee I'll keep you from the edge of the gulf too; and, moreover, maintain by its pungent aid that distance between you and myself most conducive to our real mutual advantage."

View in context

He exploited and explored the margins, as he tread the razor's edge of taste and sensitivity by conflating suicide bombings with jury service and debasing semi-serious commentary on last year's civil uprisings with hilarious bathos.

REVIEW; Omid Djalil, St David's Hall, Cardiff