Related Words

Descent: Acquisition of an estate by inheritance in which an heir succeeds to the property by operation of law.

Descent Into The Underworld: An archetype or motif in folklore, religion, mythology, or literature in which the protagonist must descend into the realm of the dead (usually located beneath the earth in hell, Elysium, or . . . View Full Definition

Incandescent Lamp: A lamp employing an electrically charged metal filament that glows at white heat. A typical light bulb.

Anticlimax: (also called bathos) a drop, often sudden and unexpected, from a dignified or important idea or situation to one that is trivial or humorous. Also a sudden descent from something sublime to . . . View Full Definition

Vertical Speed Indicator: A panel instrument that gauges rate of climb or descent in feet-per-minute (fpm). Also Rate Of Climb Indicator.

Archetype: Something in the world, and described in literature, that, according to the psychologist karl jung, manifests a dominant theme in the collective unconscious of human beings. Northrop frye in . . . View Full Definition

Underworld: The land of the dead--often depicted as beneath the surface of the earth in a variety of religious literatures. See Descent Into the Underworld.

Family: 1. A group of individuals related by blood or marriage or by a feeling of closeness. 2. A biological classification of related plants or animals that is a division below the order and above . . . View Full Definition

Psychopompos: A spirit-guide who leads or escorts a soul into the realm of the dead. Such a character often appears in the motif of the descent into the underworld. Examples of a psychopompos would be dei . . . View Full Definition

Bathos : Alexander pope's peri-bathous, or the art of sinking in poetry (1728) describes bathos as a poet's fall, in a work of some seriousness, into an unintentionally comic pathos.