saccharine

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   excessively sweet, sentimental, or flattering in an insincere or unpleasant way

   The film's saccharine ending weakened an otherwise restrained story.

2. 2
   adj

   of, relating to, or having the qualities of sugar

   The chemist measured the saccharine residue left by the solution.

From New Latin saccharum, 'sugar,' plus the adjective suffix -ine; saccharum ultimately comes through Greek and Latin from an Indo-Aryan word for sugar. The figurative sense compares excessive sentimentality or flattery to sweetness so intense that it becomes cloying.

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