sentimentality

Etymology

It is formed from English sentimental + -ity.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The adjective sentimental, recorded from 1749, is formed from sentiment and -al,^[3][2] and that noun goes back through Old French sentement and Medieval Latin sentīmentum to Latin sentiō (“to feel”).^[3][2] According to Littré and to Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, cited by the OED, French sentimental was adopted from the English adjective as Sterne used it, and so was German sentimental.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of being sentimental: Etymonline dates it to 1768,^[2] and the OED and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to 1770, the OED's first quotation being from the Monthly Review.^[3][4] Dictionary.com gives the range 1760–70.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The adjective at first had a favourable sense, of refined and elevated feeling,^[3][2] and Etymonline finds its later meaning, "too tender-hearted", implied by this noun in 1768.^[2] The OED defines the noun as affectation of sensibility and exaggerated insistence on the claims of sentiment.^[3] The Century Dictionary quotes Warton on "the false pity and sentimentality of many modern ladies".^[7] Carlyle used the plural in 1828, for sentimental notions, in his essay on Burns.^[3][6] John Mason Brown wrote that "what was respected as honest sentiment is branded as sentimentality, and mocked at, when the emotion which sustained it no longer exists".^[4]

Timeline

• 1768 – the quality of being sentimental to excess.^[2] The OED's first quotation is from 1770.^[3][4]
• 1828 – plural, sentimental notions.^[3][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The quality or state of being sentimental, especially to excess or as an affectation.^[4][3][8]
2. A sentimental act, statement or idea; in the plural, sentimental notions.^[9][8][6][3]

Word family

• oversentimentality

Related words

• sentimental
• sentiment
• sentimentalism
• sense

Usage notes

Dictionary.com separates this word from sentiment: sentiment is a sincere and refined sensibility, while sentimentality implies feeling that is affected, excessive and sometimes cloying.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Whitney, William Dwight, ed. (1889–1891), The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, New York: The Century Co. (1901 printing)
8. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins