Bathetic - #448 - a podcast by Word of the Day

Today’s word of the day is bathetic. It’s spelled B-A-T-H-E-T-I-C. Bathetic means trite or sentimental.

Loosely connected to the similar sounding pathetic, bathetic has its roots in Ancient Greek. Pathos comes from a Greek word meaning ‘evoking pity,’ while bathos originally meant ‘depth,’ which came to mean ‘excessively sentimental.’ A movie character that brings you to tears of sadness is pathetic. A movie character that aims for pathetic but instead brings you to tears of unintended laughter is bathetic.

Marne was never a fan of cheesy romance novels. Those bathetic characters always evoked nothing from her but eye rolls and groans.

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