Mushy is an informal word meaning overly emotional or sentimental (mushy love letters). The more elevated adjective maudlin means tearfully or weakly emotional, or foolishly sentimental (a maudlin story of a little orphan and her lost dog). Maudlin emotion is excessive because it’s disproportionate to what motivates it. If a TV commercial for soap makes you sob, you are being maudlin, although the same could be said of the commercial, with its effective but shallow and insincere formula for eliciting tears. As for how this adjective came to suggest preternaturally hyperactive tear ducts: before English speakers were describing commercials and sad stories as maudlin, they were using the term as a noun to refer to Mary Magdalene, who was traditionally depicted weeping.

To carry something is to take or support it from one place to another. This very common verb does not, on its own, suggest difficulty or a high degree of effort; it merely states a mode of conveyance: I carried the casserole to the neighbor’s house. The synonym lug, on the other hand, suggests strenuous effort. This verb is used to talk about pulling or carrying heavy or ponderous things with force or great exertion. If you lug a suitcase up a flight of stairs, the suggestion is that you are transporting it, maybe even dragging it, with some difficulty. It’s no surprise that this verb is sometimes chosen to emphasize or even exaggerate the burdensome nature of a task.

In the most general sense, a mistake is an error caused by poor reasoning, carelessness, or insufficient knowledge. This finger-wagging noun can be applied to actions, calculations, opinions, or judgments: it was a mistake to argue. A snafu is an error, glitch, oversight, or misunderstanding that causes a confusing situation. A scheduling snafu at a restaurant might result in a table being overbooked—putting hopeful diners in an awkward situation once they arrive. Some readers might’ve experienced a technical snafu or two working from home and videoconferencing with their colleagues (is that mute button really on?). Snafu can also refer to the situation itself, more precisely, a badly confused or ridiculously muddled one: the ballot snafu led to a recount.