bathos [M17th] This is a Greek word and was first recorded in English in the literal Greek sense ‘depth’. The literary sense was introduced by Alexander Pope in the early 18th century. He published the Bathos in the Miscellanies (third volume) in 1728, which was a lively satire giving descriptions of bad authors, identified by initials. Bathysphere [1930], for a spherical chamber that can be lowered into the depths of the sea, comes from the same source.