schmaltz

schmaltz

highly sentimental and banal music, literature, etc.
banal or excessive sentimentalism

Origin of schmaltz

uncertain or unknown; perhaps via Yiddish from German schmaltz, literally , rendered fat, akin to schmelzen, to melt: see smelt

Also sp. schmalz

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"Schmaltz." YourDictionary. LoveToKnow. www.yourdictionary.com/schmaltz.

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Schmaltz. (n.d.). In YourDictionary. Retrieved from https://www.yourdictionary.com/schmaltz

schmaltz

also schmalz

noun

Informal
a. Excessively sentimental art or music.
b. Maudlin sentimentality.
Liquid fat, especially chicken fat.

Origin of schmaltz

Yiddish shmalts animal fat, sentimentality from Middle High German smalz animal fat from Old High German; see mel-¹ in Indo-European roots.

Related Forms:

schmaltz′i·ness
noun

schmaltz′y
adjective

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.