tawdry

Etymology

Shortened from tawdry lace; originally a corruption of Saint Audrey lace (from Old English Æðelþryð). The lace necklaces sold to pilgrims to Saint Audrey fell out of fashion in the 17th century, and so tawdry was reinterpreted as meaning “cheap” or “vulgar”.

noun

1. (obsolete) Tawdry lace.
2. (obsolete) Anything gaudy and cheap; pretentious finery.

adj

1. (of clothing, appearance, etc.) Cheap and gaudy; showy.
   The rest of his dress—a dress always sufficiently tawdry—was overcharged with lace, embroidery, and ornament of every kind, and the plume of feathers which he wore was so high, as if intended to sweep the roof of the hall. 1823, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 33, in Quentin Durward
   This wasn't really a room for me; the green curtains before the windows were rather tawdry, and there was anything but an abundance of nails on the walls for hanging one's wardrobe. 1890, Knut Hamsen, translated by Sverre Lyngstad, Sult (Hunger), Paperback, 2016 edition, Canongate Books, Ltd., Part One, page 34
   It was all cheap and incredibly tawdry, from the festoons of paper roses on the walls to the flash of paste jewels in make-believe crowns. 1917, Alice Hegan Rice, chapter 20, in Calvary Alley
   So now you just want cheap thrills and plenty of 'em and it don't matter how tawdry or vacuous they are as long as it's new, as long as it's new, as long as it flashes and fucking bleeps in 40 fucking different colours. 1993, Mike Leigh, Naked, spoken by Johnny (David Thewlis)
2. (of character, behavior, situations, etc.) Unseemly, base, shameful.
   [T]he "greaser" was a dirty, idle, shiftless, treacherous, tawdry vagabond, dwelling in a disgracefully primitive house, and backward in every aspect of civilization. 1918, Stewart Edward White, chapter 1, in The Forty-Niners
   The woman's passion by his side seemed suddenly tawdry and unreal, the seeking of her lips for his something horrible. 1920, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 16, in The Great Impersonation
   After months of flat-out lying to the public, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards finally copped to having a sleazy extramarital fling […] The tawdry affair has dogged Edwards over the past few months. August 9 2008, Clemente Lisi, “Lusty Lies of Don Juan John”, in New York Post, retrieved 2013-12-16