bathos

noun /ˈbeɪθɒs/

1. Overdone or treacly attempts to inspire pathos.

   uncountable

   I like you more than I can say; but I'll not sink into a bathos of sentiment...

2. A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to

   uncountable

   While a plain and direct Road is pav'd to their ὐψος, or sublime; no Track has been yet chalk'd out to arrive at our βάθος, or profund.

3. A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to: — An anticlimax: an abrupt transition in style or subject from high to low.

   uncountable

4. A risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to: — A banality: an unaffectingly clichéd or trite treatment of a topic.

   uncountable

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Ancient Greek βάθος (báthos, “depth”). Employed ironically following Alexander Pope's Peri Bathous, lampooning various errors in contemporary writers.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry bathos (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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