maudlin
adjEtymology From Middle English Maudelen, a dialectal form of Mary Magdalene (typically depicted weeping), from Old French Madelaine (whence Madeleine), from Late Latin Magdalena (see Magdalena, Magdalene, and Maudlin).
1
Affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner, especially because of drunkenness.
- Why, man, you couldn't stand—you made everybody laugh in the Gardens, though you were crying yourself. You were maudlin, Jos. Don't you remember singing a song?1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC:
- With the help of a sleepy waiter, Little Billee got the bacchanalian into his room and lit his candle for him, and, disengaging himself from his maudlin embraces, left him to wallow in solitude.1894, George du Maurier, “Part Third”, in Trilby: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 165:
2 more examples
- He was a drunkard, and had not known it. What he had fondly imagined was a pleasant exhilaration had been maudlin intoxication.c. 1900, O. Henry, The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball:
- ...you are my devoted friend too. You do more and work harder and oh shit I'd get maudlin about how damned swell you are. My god I'd like to see you... You're a hell of a good guy.1927 Mar. 31, Ernest Hemingway, letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald
2
Extravagantly or excessively sentimental; mawkish, self-pitying.
- To cap it all I had written a letter to Mara saying that we had to find a way out soon or I would commit suicide. It must have been a maudlin letter because when she telephoned me she said it was imperative to see me immediately.1949, Henry Miller, Sexus (The Rosy Crucifixion), Grove Press, published 1965, →ISBN, page 105:
- On the rebound one passes into tears and pathos. Maudlin tears. I almost prefer the moments of agony. These are at least clean and honest. But the bath of self-pity, the wallow, the loathsome sticky-sweet pleasure of indulging it — that disgusts me.1961, CS Lewis, A Grief Observed:
3
Obsolete Tearful, lachrymose.
- Derived terms
- maudlinism, maudlinize, maudlinly, maudlinness, maudlinwort, sweet maudlin, unmaudlin