I've seen bathetic before and not always thought it a typo, but this time, since I saw it among Roy Edroso's other words reviewing Milk, I bothered to look it up. It means, especially in the way Roy used it, a weak, cheap, or insincere portrayal of emotion, or a similarly bad attempt to draw or convey emotion.
Also, now we can add bathos to hathos on a list of rhymes for poetry we hope never to write.
P.S. I know it's my fault for mentioning the movie, but please keep all bathhouse jokes to yourself.
2 comments:
Meretricious is one of my favorites, because it means the opposite of what it sounds like. One of its (three negative) meanings is similar to that of bathetic.
Meretricious is euphonious, isn't it? I agree -- it does seem like it should mean something opposite. Probably because it reminds us of merit?
You know what word I don't like, but means something good? Pulchritudinous.
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