17 examples of how musicians conflate the terms 'mawkish' and 'arch' with varying degrees of success

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'The root of the word mawkish is the Sanskrit word for "maggot" and that "maggot" is also an archaic definition for the word in English. The word maggot, which is a variation of maddock, is first found at the end of the 14th century: "Magottes ben wormes that brede of corrupt and rotyd moysture in flesshe" (John of Trevisa, translation of Bartholomew de Glanville's De proprietatibus rerum, 1398). The form of the word is thought to have been influenced by the name Maggot, which was a nickname for "Margaret."

'From the 17th through the 19th centuries, maggot had another meaning, too. It meant 'an odd fancy' or 'a whim': "There's a strange Magot hath got into their Brain" (J. Howell, Letters, 1688). A maggot could also be 'a whimsical person': "You were as great a Maggot as any in the World when you were at Paris" (N. Bailey, Erasmus' Colloquies, 1725). Old Norse mathkr also developed into the English word mawk, meaning 'maggot', in the 15th century: "Att the laste mawkis bred therin" (Alphabet of Tales, 1440). Except in certain dialects, this word survives only in the form mawkish, whose basic sense is 'maggoty'.

'The earliest citation for mawkish is in Dryden, who used it to mean 'squeamish' or 'without appetite': "I feel my stomach a little mawkish" (Enemy's Love, 1668). By the end of the 17th century, there had been a further shift in meaning to 'nauseating' and then 'tending to make nauseated': "Others look loathsom and diseas'd with sloth, Like a faint traveller whose dusty mouth Grows dry with heat, and spits a maukish froth" (Addison, translation of Virgil's Georgics, 1719). Mawkish quickly came to be used to refer to something that was 'sickening' in the sense of 'sickeningly sentimental'.' -- The Mavens' Word of the Day

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arch
adj

1. (prenominal) chief; principal; leading his arch rival
2. (prenominal) very experienced; expert an arch criminal
3. knowing or superior
4. playfully or affectedly roguish or mischievous




Harry Chapin 'W.O.L.D.' (4:23)


Sebadoh 'Perverted World' (1:55)


Meatloaf 'I Would Do Anything for Love' (8:01)


'The Treehouse Trolls' (0:52)


The Shangri-Las 'He Cried' (3:09)


The Magnetic Fields 'I Thought You were My Boyfriend' (6:55)


Paul McCartney 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' (3:42)


Telemann 'Canary' Cantata (6:43)


Sparks 'Mickey Mouse' (4:59)


Nick 'Live Like You Were Dying' (2:49)


Morrissey 'Moon River' (3:01)


Matt Clemons 'Days of Yore' (2:21)


Randy Newman 'The World Isn't Fair' (3:31)


Jesus and Mary Chain 'Reverence' (3:51)


Loudon Wainwright III 'The Drinking Song' (3:20)


Marc Almond 'Tears Run Rings' (4:08)


Would You Remember Me? (5:00)

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