3 November 2014

bathos

[bey-thos, -thaws, -thohs]

noun
1. a ludicrous descent from the exalted or lofty to the commonplace; anticlimax.
2. insincere pathos; sentimentality; mawkishness.
3. triteness or triviality in style.

Related forms

bathetic (adjective)
1. displaying or characterized by bathos:
– the bathetic emotionalism of soap operas.

Origin
1630-1640; < Greek: depth

Can be confused
bathos, pathos.

Synonyms
2. maudlinness, tearfulness; mush, gush, schmaltz. 3. insipidity, inanity.

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for bathos
– But there is nothing but excess, self-indulgence and bathos.
– And in reading their requests the bathos of the ultimate penalty is impossible to ignore.
– The film is an unqualified delight, never descending into sloppy sentiment or boggy bathos.

Anagram

so bath

Today’s quote

I guess I look like a rock quarry that someone has dynamited.

– Charles Bronson

On this day

3 November 1913 – The United States introduces income tax.

3 November 1921 – birth of Charles Dennis Buchinsky, otherwise known as Charles Bronson, American actor. Died 30 August 2003.

3 November 1957 – Laika becomes the world’s first space-dog when the Soviet Union launches Sputnik II, sending the first ever living animal into space. Laika is the first animal to orbit the earth. She was a stray-dog which was chosen to undergo training with two other dogs, before being selected for the mission. In 2002 it was revealed that she died within hours of take-off from over-heating when one of the motors failed to separate from the payload.