Word of the Day Archive
Tuesday August 28, 2012
bathetic \buh-THET-ik\
, adjective:
Displaying or characterized by insincere emotions: the bathetic emotionalism of soap operas.
The bathetic quality of "instant cliche" endings is to some extent counterbalanced by the kind of ending which combines plot-contortion with climactic enlightenment…
-- Heterocosms, Heterocosms
Attempts to capture the awe and pain of dying can often, alas, come out sounding either bathetic or satiric.
-- Nancy Kress, Characters, Emotion and Viewpoint
Based on the more common word pathetic, bathetic entered English in the 1830s. It comes from the Greek word bathos which meant "depth."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for bathetic
