mawkish · adj — excessively or falsely sentimental; showing a sickly excess of sentiment. It carries an Arena rating of 1682, earned across 7 head-to-head judged battles.
Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mawkish ranks #199 of 17,132 for Most Betrayed by Its Sound, #2,131 of 17,128 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,353 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #2,557 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words.
mawkish is pronounced /ˈmɔːkɪʃ/.
Why “mawkish” is a great word
Excessively and falsely sentimental to a sickening or insipid degree. From the obsolete English word 'mawk' (meaning 'maggot', from Middle English 'mawke', from Old Norse 'mathkr') + the suffix '-ish', originally describing something maggot-ridden or having the sickly-sweet smell of decay, hence 'sickening'. Unlike "apathetic," which implies a chilling void of feeling, or "stoic," which denotes a noble endurance of pain without complaint, mawkish is sentiment grown rancid—a performance of emotion that curdles the air. It is the cloying scent of week-old funeral flowers, the saccharine string swell over a predictable film death, and the forced, trembling lip of a bad actor in a cheap play; the faint, unmistakable whiff of the counterfeit masquerading as the profound.
❧ Written by Lexicurio’s AI
Etymology
From mawk + -ish.
adj
- Excessively or falsely sentimental; showing a sickly excess of sentiment.
- Feeling sick, queasy.
- Sickening or insipid in taste or smell.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
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