melancholy
nounEtymology
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.
- derived from melancolie
- inherited from malencolie
Definitions
Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
- 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.
Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
- My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.
- "The ancients referred melancholy to the mind, the moderns make it matter of digestion—to either case my plan applies," said Lady Mandeville.
Affected with great sadness or depression.
- Melancholy people don't talk much.
- […] he is melancholy without cause, and merry against the hair: […]
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
Suggestive of wistfulness or subdued emotion.
- It was the same old song / With a melancholy sound.
The neighborhood
- neighbormelancholic
- neighborsadness
- neighbormelancholia
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at melancholy. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at melancholy. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
7 hops · closes at melancholy
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA