bathos

[bey-thos, -thaws, -thohs]

noun

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

2. insincere pathos; sentimentality; mawkishness.

   Synonyms: schmaltz, gush, mush, tearfulness, maudlinness

3. triteness or triviality in style.

   Synonyms: inanity, insipidity

bathos

/ ˈbeɪθɒs /

noun

1. 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of bathos¹

1630–40; < Greek: depth

Word History and Origins

Origin of bathos¹

C18: from Greek: depth, from bathus deep

Example Sentences

Open Roads, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake and Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden take on the emotional depths of family life in ways that shred the heartstrings — mostly without slipping into bathos.

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Yet even as Winocour piles on too many complications, she retains an appreciable astringency — call it a sense of emotional realism about what it means to actually survive — that keeps bathos at bay.

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The grid — a modernist pictorial device that she deploys with postmodernist bathos — is rendered in wonky, spray-painted lines or a loose pink and brown checkerboard.

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But it also lapsed into bathos at times, in galleries about the events of Sept. 11, 2001, or a shrine to journalists killed while on duty.

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Shot in Utica, N.Y., and boasting locations that set a high bar for starkness, “Clean” has some real craft, but doesn’t quite satisfy as it toggles between bloodbaths and bathos.

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