melancholy

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“
It ` s a serious medical problem with life-threatening consequences and to sort of brush off a comedian ` s depression as sort of a melancholy is a grave mistake.

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Definitions (32)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun Sadness or depression of the spirits; gloom: "There is melancholy in the wind and sorrow in the grass” (Charles Kuralt).
  2. noun Pensive reflection or contemplation.
  3. noun Archaic Black bile.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (8)

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Examples

  • You are not well, you have no friend to cheer you, and this melancholy is the result. —  The Wings of Icarus
  • I have heard it ingeniously observed by a lady of rank and elegance, that 'his melancholy was then at its meridian [2].' —  Life Of Johnson
  • Whether this melancholy was the cause of his breaking the engagement, or was caused by it, we cannot say. —  The Life of Abraham Lincoln
  • It ` s a serious medical problem with life-threatening consequences and to sort of brush off a comedian ` s depression as sort of a melancholy is a grave mistake. —  CNN Transcript Dec 25, 2007
  • It ` s a serious medical problem with potentially life - threatening consequences, and to sort of brush off a comedian ` s depression as just sort of a melancholy is a grave mistake. —  CNN Transcript Jul 13, 2007
 

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Words tagged melancholy

lachrymosity

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Melancholy has been looked up 931 times, favorited 9 times, listed 152 times, and commented on 4 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

sadness ·  sad ·  mournful ·  very ·  tender ·  sorrow ·  quiet ·  dread ·  gloomy
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English melancolie, from Old French, from Late Latin melancholia, from Greek melankholiā : melās, melan-, black + kholē, bile; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English melancolie, melincoly, malencolye, from Old French melancolie, merencolie, French mélancolie = Provencal melancolia = Spanish melancolīa = Portuguese melancolia = Italian melancolia, melanconia, malinconia = Dutch melankolie = German melancholie = Danish Sw. melankoli, from Late Latin melancholia, from Greek μελαγχολία, the condition of having black bile (Latin atra bilis), jaundice, melancholy, madness, from μελάγχολος, with black bile, from μέλας (μελαν-), black, + χολή, bile: see cholic. In the adjective use the word is later, standing for melancholic.
 

Pronunciations
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/ˈmɛlənkɑli/
by American Heritage

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