Skip to content

The word for today is…

mawkish (adjective):

1 : lacking flavor or having an unpleasant taste
2 : exaggeratedly or childishly emotional

Source : Merriam -Webster

Etymology :Mawkish really opens up a can of worms—or maggots, as it were: the word wriggled out from Middle English mawke, meaning “maggot.” Its earliest sense, used in the late 17th century but now obsolete, was synonymous with squeamish (understandable!) but not long after that mawkish was used to describe an unpleasant, nauseating, often sickeningly sweet flavor. It’s no surprise that a figurative sense of mawkish, used to describe things that are full of “sickly sweet” sentimentality, arose almost concurrently, one of several food texture- and taste-related words favored by critics to show disdain for art they deem overly emotive, including gooey, saccharine, mushy, and schmaltzy.

If you enjoyed this BFD word of the day please consider sharing it with your friends and, especially, your children.

Latest