The Etymology of Maudlin
Maudlin is one of those words that disguises its origin as a proper name. It is the Middle English pronunciation of Magdalene — Mary Magdalene of the Gospels — who in medieval Western iconography was painted again and again weeping in repentance, often with long unbound hair, a skull, and a jar of ointment. Her tears were so famous that by the early 17th century the English adjective maudlin came to mean tearful, weepy, especially in a way that seemed excessive or self-pitying. The slide from sacred sorrow to drunken sentimentality came quickly: by Shakespeare’s time, a man crying in his cups could be called maudlin. The original place-name Magdala is Aramaic for tower — a small fishing village on the Sea of Galilee — and Mary Magdalene meant Mary of Magdala. The medieval English form Maudelen kept the loose vowels that the modern adjective preserves. Magdalen College at Oxford and Magdalene College at Cambridge are both still pronounced maudlin in spoken English — a small preservation of the same medieval sound.