bathos

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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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