These words refer to emotionalism that is excessive, unrealistic, false or affected. Sentimental once could refer neutrally or approvingly to the capacity for feeling deeply about serious matters; it is occasionally still used approvingly, though even here it applies to more trivial emotions, particularly to nostalgia: She kept the ribbon from her corsage as a sentimental remembrance of her first formal dance. Otherwise, the word is widely understood as disapproving in tone, pertaining to an inappropriate willingness to be moved at the slightest prompting or by situations that do not warrant genuine feeling. The word does not censure all feeling, only that which is trivial, forced or excessive; no one would think it sentimental to weep at the death of a friend; most people, on the other hand, would think it sentimental to supply a funeral and tombstone for, say, a pet canary that had died. Romantic has gone through a similar change, although the split in meaning still exists. It once referred to the expression of deep feeling, or the valuing of feeling above form. As such, it names an artistic era or indicates words of art from any period that displays this legitimate emphasis. Those who legitmately prefer a different emphasis can use the word disapprovingly to point to chaotic or formless emotionality: romantic blithering about originality and artistic freedom. On a much less formal level, the word can refer descriptively or approvingly to things pertaining to love between a man and woman: glances that hinted of his romantic interest in her.

Effusive and gushing both refer to copious displays of any sort of emotion. Effusive may be approving or neutral: effusive in their thanks for their host’s hospitality. More often, it emphasizes excessive or insincere displays: finding his effusive flattery unbearable. With gushing , only disapproval is possible, pointing with more severity to extreme or silly displays: spinsters gushing rapturously over their pet poodles. Mushy at its most informal suggests contempt for romantic love: typical pre-adolescent boys who reject any interest in girls as being mushy . It can suggest also a rejection of trivial or sentimental attitudes towards such emotions: a mushy love story. Slushy and sloppy are even more critical of such attitudes towards love than mushy . They suggest a rejection of love seen as occasions for self-pity, weeping and a sentimental evasion of reality: the standard slushy , sudsy soap opera; sloppy , emotional scenes.

Maudlin and mawkish are considerably more formal than the previous pair and more specific in meaning. Maudlin is generally believed to have derived, through Old French Madelaine, from Latin Magdalena, in allusion to Mary Magdalene, who was often depicted with eyes swollen from weeping. The word now suggests strong disapproval for excessive emotionalism, especially of a tearful sort: a maudlin tear-jerker that ran as a serial in a woman’s magazine. Mawkish emphasizes the falsity of excessive emotions, their awkwardness and feebleness, or their offence against good taste. Unlike maudlin , it applies to any sort of emotion, and is even stronger in its pejorative overtones: mawkish appeals to the stock responses and prejudices of his audiences.