In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
BATHOS
anticlimax, bathos
(noun) a change from a serious subject to a disappointing one
bathos
(noun) triteness or triviality of style
mawkishness, bathos
(noun) insincere pathos
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
bathos (uncountable)
Overdone or treacly attempts to inspire pathos.
(now uncommon) Depth.
(literature, the arts) Risible failure on the part of a work of art to properly affect its audience, particularly owing to
anticlimax: an abrupt transition in style or subject from high to low.
banality: unaffectingly cliché or trite treatment of a topic.
immaturity: lack of serious treatment of a topic.
hyperbole: excessiveness
(literature, the arts) The ironic use of such failure for satiric or humorous effect.
(uncommon) A nadir, a low point particularly in one's career.
Synonyms
• (anticlimax): See anticlimax
• (artistic failure through banality): banality, triteness
• (artistic failure through triviality): immaturity, callowness
• (artistic failure through hyperbole): chewing the scenery, hamminess
• (artistic failure through overdone pathos): sappiness, cheesiness, tweeness, treacliness
Antonyms
• (depth): See depth
• (artistic failure): pathos
• (nadir): See nadir
Anagrams
• TAH-BSO
Source: Wiktionary
Ba"thos, n. Etym: [Gr. depth, fr. deep.] (Rhet.)
Definition: A ludicrous descent from the elevated to the low, in writing or speech; anticlimax.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
15 April 2025
DOOMED
(adjective) marked by or promising bad fortune; “their business venture was doomed from the start”; “an ill-fated business venture”; “an ill-starred romance”; “the unlucky prisoner was again put in irons”- W.H.Prescott
Coffee Trivia
