WordNet

triteness or triviality of style
an ancient Hebrew liquid measure equal to about 10 gallons
a vessel containing liquid in which something is immersed (as to process it or to maintain it at a constant temperature or to lubricate it); "she soaked the etching in an acid bath"
you soak and wash your body in a bathtub; "he has a good bath every morning"

PrepTutorEJDIC

漸降法(荘重な調子を急に低い調子に落とす修辞法) / (文体など)陳腐,平凡 / 甘い感傷,感傷過剰
『入浴』;水浴び / (また《おもに米》『bathtub』,《話》『tub』)浴槽(よくそう),ふろ[がま] / 『浴室』(bathroom); / 《複数形で》(古代の)大浴場 / (化学作用を与えるための)浴液;電解そう / ‥'を'入浴させる / 入浴する

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出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2014/04/08 19:42:07」(JST)

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Bathos (/ˈbeɪθɒs, -θoʊs/; Greek βάθος, meaning "depth") is an abrupt transition in style from the exalted to the commonplace, producing a ludicrous effect. While often unintended, bathos may be used deliberately to produce a humorous effect.^[1]^[2] If bathos is overt, it may be described as Burlesque or mock-heroic. It should not be confused with pathos, a mode of persuasion within the discipline of rhetoric, intended to arouse emotions of sympathy and pity.

Examples

Modern

Contemporary examples often take the form of analogies, written to seem unintentionally funny:

Week 310: It's Like This of The Style Invitational humor contest column in the Washington Post (14 March 1999), on humorous analogies, many exhibiting bathos, such as:

The ballerina rose gracefully en pointe and extended one slender leg behind her, like a dog at a fire hydrant.

(Jennifer Hart, Arlington)^[3]

The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest features purple prose, at times exhibiting bathos:

They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white . . . Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain American, as it really doesn't taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently.

Mariann Simms, Wetumpka, AL (2003 Winner)

In humorous novels:

The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't.

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978)

References

^ Fiske, Robert Hartwell (1 November 2011). Robert Hartwell Fiske's Dictionary of Unendurable English: A Compendium of Mistakes in Grammar, Usage, and Spelling with commentary on lexicographers and linguists. Scribner. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4516-5134-8.
^ Abrams, Meyer Howard; Harpham, Geoffrey Galt (2009). A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-4130-3390-8.
^ High School Analogies

Bibliography

Pope, Alexander (2006) [1727]. "Peri Bathous". In Pat Rogers. The Major Works. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 195–238. ISBN 978-0-19-920361-1. OCLC 317742832.

English Journal

[Unsaponified corn oil extract in periodontal therapy].

Pezoula B, Pezoula D, Pleuritakes T, Karamitsou P, Athelakes K.
Odontostomatologike proodos.Odontostomatol Proodos.1974 Mar-Apr;28(2):55-68.
PMID 4211728

Japanese Journal

『ジュリアス・シーザー』論 : 構成上の問題点について

高久眞一
北海学園大学人文論集 3, 1-33, 1994-10-31
… after the extravagant words, "the elements", "Nature" and "all the world", it ends up with calling him "a man"-a prize example of bathos in the speech, and structurally speaking, an anticlimax to the whole play. …
NAID 110001060100

仮面・道化・パリノウド--『詐欺師』の「韜晦」について

星野勝利
岩手大学教育学部研究年報 (38), p17-32, 1978-12
… To these structural ones must be added those of substance, which may beunderstood in terms of fragmentalism or bathos.In the narrative are found three apologias, which not only apologize for the inconsistencies ofbehaviors of characters but also defend them as true reflection of reality or nature. …
NAID 120001124186