maudlin

From Middle English Maudelen, a dialectal form of Mary Magdalene (typically depicted weeping), from Old French Madelaine, from Late Latin Magdalena.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmɔːd.lɪn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɑd.lɪn/, /ˈmɔd.lɪn/

maudlin (plural maudlins)

1. (obsolete, Christianity) The Magdalene; Mary Magdalene. [14th-16th c.]
   • c. 1400, Nicholas Love (trans.), The Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ:

     for alle they worſchipden hir ſouereynly / as worthy was / but ſpecially Mawdelayne / that wolde neuere departe fro hir.

2. (now historical) Either of two aromatic plants, costmary or sweet yarrow. [from 15th c.]
   • 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society 2007, p. 186:

     Common Maudlin have somewhat long and narrow leaves, snipped about the edges.

3. (obsolete) A Magdalene house; a brothel. [17th c.]

maudlin (comparative more maudlin, superlative most maudlin)

1. Affectionate or sentimental in an effusive, tearful, or foolish manner, especially because of drunkenness. [from 17th c.]
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 6:

     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?

   • 1894, George du Maurier, Trilby‎, page 163:

     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.

   • around 1900, O. Henry, The Rubaiyat of a Scotch Highball

     He was a drunkard, and had not known it. What he had fondly imagined was a pleasant exhilaration had been maudlin intoxication.

2. Extravagantly or excessively sentimental; mawkish, self-pitying. [from 17th c.]
   • 1961, CS Lewis, A Grief Observed

     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.

3. (obsolete) Tearful, lachrymose. [17th-19th c.]

• (affectionately sentimental): mushy, sappy, schmaltzy, soupy, slushy
  • (drunk): See Thesaurus:drunk
• (excessively sentimental): emotional, overwrought, soppy
• (tearful): larmoyant, mournful, plaintful, teary, weepy; see also Thesaurus:sad

• Mauldin, indlamu