the.com/sentimental
a feeling dressed up in an old sweater that still smells like someone.
means Governed by or appealing to tender feelings and nostalgia, often more than reason or proportion would justify.
from From Latin 'sentire,' to feel or perceive — the same root that gives us 'sense,' 'sentiment,' and 'sentinel' (one who feels danger coming). 'Sentiment' arrived in English via Old French, and 'sentimental' was built on top of it in the 18th century, riding the wave of a literary fashion for novels of feeling — Laurence Sterne even titled one 'A Sentimental Journey.' At first it praised refined emotional sensibility; only later did it pick up its faint whiff of excess, the tear shed a little too readily.
- latin root
- from sentire, meaning to feel or perceive
- first insult
- became a put-down for excess emotion by 1800s
- nostalgia link
- once a diagnosed medical illness in soldiers
- value trap
- old objects priced by memory, not market
casablanca film — 1942 classic with 'here's looking at you, kid' — the definitive sentimental romance film
lincoln's gettysburg address — 272 words spoken november 19, 1863, mixing sentiment with national purpose