melancholy

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“
At times it sounds morose or contemplative, but underneath the melancholy is a gospel fervor-bashed from paint buckets, banjos, guitars and anything else in kicking distance-that defines their sound.

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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 GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (8)

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Examples (50)

  • 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, Vol. 1
  • A close examination of Bolivar's pictures and statues will reveal to the observer that in the eyes of the great man of the South is the same inexpressible melancholy which is obvious in those of our own man of sorrows, the beloved Lincoln. —  Simon Bolivar, the Liberator
  • You are not well, you have no friend to cheer you, and this melancholy is the result. —  The Wings of Icarus
  • But that melancholy which is excited by objects of pleasure, or inspired by sounds of harmony, soothes the heart instead of corroding it. —  Oliver Goldsmith
  • The reason for her melancholy was evident to any one who knew her father's history. —  Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White, V1
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Words tagged melancholy

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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.
 

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/ˈmɛlənkɑli/
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