melancholy
Part of speech: noun
adj
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: From Middle English malencolie, from Old French melancolie, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía, “atrabiliousness”) (from μέλας (mélas), μελαν- (melan-, “black, dark, murky”) + χολή (kholḗ, “bile”)), referring to the humour which ancient Hippocratic and later Galenic medicine associated with sadness and despondency. Compare the Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”). The adjectival use is a Middle English innovation, perhaps influenced by the suffixes -y, -ly. Doublet of melancholia.
Inflected forms:
form: melancholies
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: melancholly
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: melancholie
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: melancholious
pos: noun
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: more melancholy
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most melancholy
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: melancholly
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: melancholie
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: melancholious
pos: adj
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
pos: noun
tags: countable
historical
uncountable
examples: Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and sour, […] is a bridle to the other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in the blood, and nourishing the bones.
gloss: Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.
I have neither the scholar’s melancholy, which is emulation; nor the musician’s, which is fantastical; nor the courtier’s, which is proud; nor the soldier’s, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer’s, which is politic; nor the lady’s, which is nice; nor the lover’s, which is all these; but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my travels; in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.
"The ancients referred melancholy to the mind, the moderns make it matter of digestion—to either case my plan applies," said Lady Mandeville.
As to Ernest... He is quite as nervously broken down as I am but it manifests itself in different ways. His inclination is towards megalomania and mine towards melancholy.
gloss: Affected with great sadness or depression.
pos: adj
tags: literary
examples: Melancholy people don't talk much.
[…] he is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair: […]
“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. […] And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […]”
gloss: Suggestive of wistfulness or subdued emotion.
pos: adj
examples: Twice a day she took them out to feed in the marshy places, let them waddle and gobble for an hour or two, and then drove them back and shut them up in a small dark shed to digest their meal, whence they gave forth occasionally a melancholy quack.
It was the same old song / With a melancholy sound.
Related words: melancholic
sadness
melancholia
Derived words: melancholily
melancholiness
melancholist
melancholize
melancholy thistle
solemncholy
unmelancholy
Translations: