Pronounced: ep-uh-nuh-LEP-sis, noun
Notes: I didn’t know the meaning, but I have run across this
Yesterday’s word
The word mawkish means
- lacking flavor or having an unpleasant taste
- exaggeratedly or childishly emotional
First usage
Our word came into English in the mid-1600s
Background / Comments
Gross… our word’s background opens up a can of… maggots! Our word came from the Middle English word mawke (maggot), which came from the Old Norse word maathkr (maggot). There are still dialects of British English in which “mawk” means “maggot”. However, the meaning has softened a bit. I was unaware of the first meaning; I knew the second definition; however, an online source has a definition that is slightly more in line with what I was thinking: “characterized by sickly sentimentality; weakly emotional; maudlin”.
Richard's Vocabulary Word-of-the-Day 