Corny means so sentimental or obvious that it makes you wince. A corny joke, corny lyrics, that is so corny.
It is affectionate as often as dismissive — corny things work on people who claim to be above them, which is why they survive. The word probably comes from the country jokes printed in old American seed catalogues, aimed at farmers.
1adjectivecornySo sentimental or obvious that it makes you wince.
“The film had a corny ending where everyone hugged and cried.”
corny is a quality of sentiment.
Corn plus -y. The sense of hackneyed probably comes from the simple jokes printed in American seed catalogues.
Middle English
corny
English, today
corny
From Middle English corny. From Middle English corny, equivalent to corn + y. grainy. In the "hackneyed" sense, from "corn catalogue jokes", reputedly low-quality jokes that were formerly printed in mail-order seed catalogues.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA