bathos

noun

ba·​thos ˈbā-ˌthäs 

1

a

: the sudden appearance of the commonplace in otherwise elevated matter or style

b

: anticlimax

2

: exceptional commonplaceness : triteness

3

: insincere or overdone pathos : sentimentalism

Synonyms

• sentimentality
• sentimentalism

Examples of bathos in a Sentence

The serious message of the film is ruined by the bathos of its ridiculous ending.

a novel that wallows in bathos

Recent Examples on the Web

Elsewhere, a black granite sarcophagus is meant to be an homage to AIDS victims; this, too, empties into bathos. —Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 14 June 2024

Playing with comic bathos is a dangerous game when aiming for sincerity. —David Benedict, Variety, 12 Sep. 2024

But there is an inescapable bathos in the way Ronaldo glorifies these achievements. —Rory Smith, New York Times, 31 May 2024

Glazer’s movie is a presentation of nearly unfathomable horrors by way of bathos, alluding to enormities in the form of minor daily inconveniences. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2023

His delicacy with the text lifts his scenes above the surrounding bathos like a kite. —Helen Shaw, The New Yorker, 19 June 2023

Arbus captured expressions of exuberance, delight in companionship, parental tenderness, self-love, piercing intelligence, ironic fatigue, suavity, bathos, aggression, perplexity and various expressions of curiosity about (or boredom with) the process of having one’s photograph taken. —Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 26 Sep. 2022

Unlike the latter, our French super-doctor ends his life in bathos. —Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 16 May 2022

But Ostermeier’s show turns the script from pathos to bathos. —Helen Shaw, Vulture, 22 May 2022

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Greek báthos "depth," neuter s-stem derivative of bathýs "deep" — more at bathy-

Note: The English use of the word bathos allegedly originates with the satirical essay "ΠΕΡΙ ΒΑΘΟΥΣ / or Of the Art of Sinking in Poetry / Written in the Year 1727" (first published March, 1728), by "Martinus Scriblerus," a fictional literary hack created by Alexander Pope, John Arbuthnot, Jonathan Swift, and other members of the Scriblerus Club; authorship of the essay is usually ascribed to Pope. The Greek title (Perì báthous, "Concerning depth") echoes the title of the classical treatise "On the Sublime" (Perì hýpsous, literally, "Concerning height"), dated to the 1st century a.d. and formerly attributed to the 3rd century rhetorician Cassius Longinus. In Pope's essay, bathos—which, in the inverted perspective of the hack author, is a favorable quality—is used broadly to characterize literary passages deemed coarse or pedestrian for a genre such as epic poetry. The idea that bathos involves a shift from elevated to low is never stated explicitly—rather, a genre such as epic is by its nature elevated and the poetic execution (ironically praised by Scriblerus) is of low quality.

First Known Use

1727, in the meaning defined at sense 1a