Shmalts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Melted and clarified poultry fat used in Jewish and Eastern European cooking ; overly sweet or mawkish sentimentality in a song, film or performance
2. Rendered fat from chicken or goose, commonly spread on bread or used for frying ; sugary, exaggerated emotional display in art, music or storytelling
3. A clarified cooking fat rendered from poultry ; sentimental excess that makes a film, song or speech feel cloying and overwrought

Etymology: In Yiddish, "shmalts" meant melted animal fat, especially rendered chicken fat used for cooking and spreading on bread. It comes from German "Schmalz," meaning lard or grease, which traces back to a Germanic root meaning "to melt." The leap to sentiment is easy to follow. Food cooked heavily in fat is rich and cloying, so describing emotion as "shmalts" implied it was laid on too thickly. English speakers came to use the word for music, films, and speeches that overdo feeling.