An unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous; anticlimax. A sudden change from serious or important to silly or unimportant.
From Greek 'bathos' meaning 'depth,' used ironically by Alexander Pope in 1727 to describe the opposite of 'pathos' (emotional height). Pope used it to mock bad writers who sank to absurd depths when trying to reach emotional heights.
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