melancholy
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈmɛlənˌkɑli/
- Archaic
:
bilis negra
- In ancient times, people believed that too much black bile resulted in melancholy and sadness.
- Anatomy of melancholy
- Melancholy, published in 1621
- black bile of melancholy
Examples
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Is there a family history of epilepsy, night blindness, eczema or melancholy?
-
Poussin himself complained of the physiological symptoms of melancholy in a letter.
Academic text (2004) -
Burton lists "God" as the first and major cause of melancholy.
Academic text (2007) -
But he was soon forced to change his diagnosis from melancholy to meanness.
Fiction book (1992) -
Now, in our time, the term melancholy functions rather more as a trope than as a philosophical or scientific concept.
Academic text (2007) -
Love was said to corrupt the imagination, dry the humors, and thereby cause melancholy or madness.
Academic text (2002) -
"I write of Melancholy by being busy to avoid Melancholy," declares the seventeenth-century writer Robert Burton near the beginning of his famous Anatomy of Melancholy.
Academic text (2007) -
After a fortnight of storytelling in the country, the brigade of friends returns to Florence disburdened of their melancholy.
Academic text (2004) -
Melancholy belongs to the same thought world as astrology, alchemy, monsters, spirits, and gods.
Academic text (2007) -
Thus, he succumbed to melancholy, and as a result of the affliction arising from the trauma, he developed a vigorous fever.
Academic text (2004)
Synonyms
A dark body fluid ancient doctors believed caused deep sadness
Compounds
A plant from northern Europe with long pointed leaves and one reddish-purple flower head
Surface Forms
Etymology
Melancholy originally named a body fluid in old medicine. It comes from Greek words melas 'black' and chole 'bile', because people long ago thought too much 'black bile' in the body caused sadness.