Maudlin means tearfully sentimental, often from drink. Maudlin and self-pitying, go maudlin, a maudlin song.
It is always a criticism and usually about somebody at the end of an evening. The word is Mary Magdalene, worn down through French: she was painted weeping so often that her name became the adjective for it, and the spelling followed the sound.
1adjectivemaudlinTearfully sentimental, often from drink.
“After a few drinks, he grew maudlin and started crying about his old girlfriend.”
maudlin is a state.
From Maudelen, an old English form of Magdalene, from paintings of Mary Magdalene weeping.
Latin
Magdalena
Old French
Madelaine
Middle English
Maudelen
English, today
maudlin
From Middle English Maudelen, a dialectal form of Mary Magdalene (typically depicted weeping), from Old French Madelaine (whence a doublet of Madeleine), from Latin Magdalena (see a doublet of Magdalena and Magdalene and Maudlin).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA