Cornier

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. The state of being excessively sentimental or cliché, which reflects an insincerity in emotional expressions
2. Characterizing something as overly cheesy or predictably sentimental, lacking in originality and depth of feeling
3. The quality of being excessively sentimental or trite reflects a lack of genuine emotion and originality in expression

Etymology: The comparative of "corny" is a fitting place to start, because the adjective has two unrelated histories that happen to share a spelling. The older sense comes from "corn" in its old English meaning of a cereal grain, and "-y" as an adjective suffix, so something "corny" was grainy or full of grain. The sense that now matters, "hackneyed" or cheaply sentimental, is a later development that passed through a curious detour: it is usually traced to "corn catalogue jokes," reputedly poor-quality jokes once printed in mail-order seed catalogues. A second, separate "corny" comes from "corn" meaning a callus on the foot, joined to "-y." It is a doublet of "horny," which shares the same Latin root "cornu," meaning horn. Both older senses were literal and physical, which makes the modern figurative meaning look almost accidental. The comparative "cornier" simply means more corny, formed by adding "-ier" to the adjective. It gives the sentimental sense a degree of comparison, so one thing can be judged cornier than another.

Synonyms: more clichéd, more trite

Antonyms: original, novel