bathos

[underused]

bathos

n. (especially in a literary work) an effect of anticlimax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous

‘To Swan's credit, she deftly skirts sentimentality; there is plenty of sentiment, but no bathos.’

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Synonymous with disillusionment, this word reminds me of the ends of books and films where I walk away thinking, "Ugh, they had me right up to that last bit."

To be fair, writing a good ending is hard.

Comments

[merikuru]

To be fair, writing a good ending is hard.

That and beginnings. My nemesis. Es. Nemeses?

[underused]

Haha, yes, nemeses I think. Otherwise it'd be nemesises, making danger sound quite silly. ☺

It's true beginnings and endings are both hard. I'm kind of bad at middles, too...

[merikuru]

The thought of silly danger is amusing, though~

I can be brilliant at middles. On occasion.

[thedaughteroftyr]

There is pathos in the bathos.

What a great word. I'll have to teach this one to Bee.

[underused]

It's a fun one. The specificity of it reminds me of those lists of foreign words that have no English translation. Sometimes I forget English has incredible words like that, too!

[amidthestars]

You know, I've heard this word so many times and have never known its meaning (or bothered to look it up). I really like it. I like that it's so precise. I'm glad that the next time I experience this, I'll have a word for it.