Crossword clues for bathos
bathos
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bathos \Ba"thos\ (b[=a]"th[o^]s), n. [Gr. ba`qos depth, fr. baqy`s deep.] (Rhet.) A ludicrous descent from the elevated to the low, in writing or speech; anticlimax.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"anticlimax, a descent from the sublime to the ridiculous," 1727, from Greek bathos "depth," related to bathys "deep" (see benthos). Introduced by Pope.
Wiktionary
n. 1 depth, bottom. 2 An abrupt change in style, usually from high to low; an unintended transition of style; an anticlimax. 3 Apparent hyperbole or praise marked by comic dilution or digression. 4 triteness; triviality; banality. 5 Overly sentimental and exaggerated pathos.
WordNet
n. triteness or triviality of style
insincere pathos [syn: mawkishness]
a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one [syn: anticlimax]
Wikipedia
Bathos ( ; , "depth") is a literary term first coined by Alexander Pope's 1727 essay " Peri Bathous" to describe amusingly failed attempts at sublimity (i.e., pathos). In particular, bathos is associated with anticlimax, an abrupt transition from a lofty style or grand topic to a common or vulgar one. This may be either accidental (through artistic ineptitude) or intentional (for comic effect). Intentional bathos appears in satiric genres such as burlesque and mock epic. "Bathos" or "bathetic" is also used for similar effects in other branches of the arts, such as musical passages marked ridicolosamente. In film, bathos may appear in a contrast cut intended for comic relief or be produced by an accidental jump cut. __NOTOC__
Usage examples of "bathos".
And pathos and bathos delightful to see, And chop and change ribs, a-la-mode Germanorum, And high diddle ho diddle, pop tweedle dee.
It was a bad scene, filled with the sort of true-confession bathos that Ivor Balmi reviled with all his heart, yet was drawn into like a maelstrom.
It was difficult to get it out without falling into bathos or melodrama.
At all moments of greatness, he suspected, bathos had never been very far away-and certain he alone could sense its presence here.
Bret Harte in verse and story touched the parallels of tragedy and of comedy, of pathos, of bathos, and of humor, which love of life and lust of gold opened up amid the unapprehended grandeurs and the coveted treasures of primeval nature.
Wordsworth was perhaps the greater, because his bathos was the result of a deliberate and persistent attempt to enrich English poetry with prosaically versified incidents drawn at length from homely rural life.
The Coleridgian sonnet is not only imperfect in form and in marked contrast in the frequent bathos of its close to the steady swell and climax of Wordsworth, but, in by far the majority of instances in this volume, it is wanting in internal weight.
Brad Bathos, from the streets of Washington, where the mourners have come to gather, to pray, to weep, to lament, and to hope.
At all moments of greatness, he suspected, bathos had never been very far away-and certain he alone could sense its presence here.
This descent into bathos almost had Cass laughing out loud at herself.
I took a few sketchy breaths and remembered with bathos that I needed a telephone if I were ever to move from that spot.