🔊 Listen to the word Maudlin

MAWD-lin

Definition

(adjective) Self-pityingly or tearfully sentimental, often in an excessive or embarrassing way; mawkishly emotional especially from drink.

Example

By the third glass of wine, he had gone fully maudlin, pulling out his phone to show anyone who would look at old photos of his college years.

Word Origin

A direct corruption of Magdalene — as in Mary Magdalene, who is depicted in medieval and Renaissance art as weeping with dramatic, open grief. The name Magdalene was pronounced maudlen in Middle English, and the association with her tearful image was so strong that the word detached from its origin entirely and became a common adjective by the 17th century. Oxford’s Magdalen College and Cambridge’s Magdalene College both preserve the original pronunciation — still said as maudlin — a linguistic fossil of the word’s religious origins.