bathos
noun/ˈbeɪθɒs/
/ˈbeɪθɑːs/
[uncountable] (formal)- (in writing or speech) a sudden change, that is not always intended, from a serious subject or feeling to something that is silly or not important
- a serious play with moments of comic bathos
Word Originmid 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