bathos

bathos

ba·thos / ˈbā[unvoicedth]äs/ • n. (esp. in a work of literature) an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous. DERIVATIVES: ba·thet·ic / bəˈ[unvoicedth]etik/ adj. ORIGIN: mid 17th cent. (first recorded in the Greek sense): from Greek, literally ‘depth.’ The current sense was introduced by Alexander Pope in the early 18th cent.

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"bathos." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"bathos." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-bathos.html

"bathos." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-bathos.html

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BATHOS

BATHOS. A term in RHETORIC for a ludicrous ANTICLIMAX: ‘For God, for country, and for Acme Gasworks’ (Random House Dictionary, 1987). Satire is often deliberately bathetic; in Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), the real-life disputes of Protestants and Catholics are presented as a Lilliputian war in which Big-Endians and Little-Endians fight over where to open a boiled egg.

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TOM McARTHUR. "BATHOS." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

TOM McARTHUR. "BATHOS." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-BATHOS.html

TOM McARTHUR. "BATHOS." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-BATHOS.html

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Bathos

Bathos (Greek, ‘depth’). The current usage for ‘descent from the sublime to the ridiculous’ originates from Pope's satire Peri Bathous, or The Art of Sinking in Poetry (1727). The title was a travesty of Longinus' essay On the Sublime.

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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Bathos." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Bathos." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Bathos.html

MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "Bathos." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-Bathos.html

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bathos

bathos XVIII. — Gr. báthos depth, f. bathús deep.
Hence bathetic XIX; after pathos, pathetic.

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T. F. HOAD. "bathos." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

T. F. HOAD. "bathos." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-bathos.html

T. F. HOAD. "bathos." The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1996. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O27-bathos.html

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bathos

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"bathos." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 11 Feb. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

"bathos." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (February 11, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-bathos.html

"bathos." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved February 11, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-bathos.html

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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Humor, Bathos and Fear: An Interview with Paul Zindel.
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Newspaper article from: The Washington Times (Washington, DC); 3/14/2011

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