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Bathos [Greek, bathos, depth]

.

A ludicrous descent from grandiloquence to commonplace. A literary mermaid.

“Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam

Jungere si yelit … ut turpiter atrum

Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne.”

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.”


Horace: De Arte Poetica, line 139.

A good example is the well-known couplet:


“And thou, Dalhousie, the great god of war,

Lieutenant-general to the earl of Mar.”

 

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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Bate me an Ace
Bath
Bath Brick
Bath Chair (A)
Bath Metal
Bath Post
Bath Shillings
Bath Stone
Bath (Major)
Bath-kol (daughter of the voice)
Bathos [Greek, bathos, depth]
Bathsheba
Bathyllus
Batiste
Batrachomyomachia (pronounce Ba-trako-myo-makia)
Batta
Battar
Battels
Battersea
Battle
Battle of the Frogs and Mice (The)

See Also:

Bathos