sentimentality

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   excessive, affected, or inappropriate tenderness and emotional feeling

   He dismissed the appeal as foolish sentimentality rather than sound judgment.

2. 2
   noun

   the quality or habit of being strongly influenced by tender feelings and memories

   Her sentimentality made it difficult to throw away old letters.

From sentimental + -ity, ultimately based on Latin sentire ("to feel, perceive"). Sentimentality acquired a critical sense in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for feeling regarded as excessive, artificial, or unsupported by judgment.

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