- Today's Word
Mawkish
MAW-kish
Definition
(adjective) Overly sentimental or emotional to the point of being unpleasant.
Example
The movie’s mawkish ending drew eye-rolls rather than tears.
Fun Fact
Mawkish originally referred to a nauseating or spoiled taste, stemming from the Middle English mauk, meaning “maggot.” Over time, the meaning shifted from physical disgust to emotional excess. Today, it’s used to describe songs, movies, or writing that lay on the sentiment so thick it turns people off.
(noun) A person who believes that the pursuit of pleasure and sensory enjoyment is the highest good and chief aim of life
A self-proclaimed hedonist, she planned her entire sabbatical around exceptional food, warm weather, and long afternoons with nothing to do.
Hedonist derives from the Greek hedone, meaning “pleasure” or “delight,” from hedys (“sweet”). The philosophical school of Hedonism was formally developed in ancient Greece — most notably by Epicurus, who argued that pleasure, properly understood, was the foundation of a good life. The word entered English in the 19th century as both a philosophical term and a descriptor for those who live purely for sensory gratification.