means Governed by or appealing to tender feelings and nostalgia, often more than reason or proportion would justify.

from From Latin 'sentire,' to feel or perceive — the same root that gives us 'sense,' 'sentiment,' and 'sentinel' (one who feels danger coming). 'Sentiment' arrived in English via Old French, and 'sentimental' was built on top of it in the 18th century, riding the wave of a literary fashion for novels of feeling — Laurence Sterne even titled one 'A Sentimental Journey.' At first it praised refined emotional sensibility; only later did it pick up its faint whiff of excess, the tear shed a little too readily.