melancholia

English

Etymology

From Late Latin melancholia, which was in turn borrowed from the Ancient Greek medical term μελαγχολία (melankholía, “blackness of the bile”) (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. Doublet of melancholy.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -əʊliə

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

melancholia (countable and uncountable, plural melancholias)

1. Deep sadness or gloom; melancholy

   Synonyms: gloom, melancholy, sadness; see also Thesaurus:sadness

2. (pathology) depression, characterised by irrational fears, guilt and apathy
   • 1955 September 15, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Paris: The Olympia Press […], →OCLC:

     The reader will regret to learn that soon after my return to civilization I had another bout with insanity (if to melancholia and a sense of insufferable oppression that cruel term must be applied).

Derived terms

• melancholiac

Related terms

• melancholy
• melancholic

Translations

Translations

• Arabic: سَوْدَاوِيَّة f (sawdāwiyya)
• Bulgarian: меланхолия (bg) f (melanholija)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 憂鬱 / 忧郁 (zh) (yōuyù), 悲哀 (zh) (bēi'āi)

• Czech: melancholie (cs) f
• Danish: melankoli (da) c, vemod n
• Dutch: melancholie (nl) f, weemoed (nl) m
• Finnish: melankolia (fi), apeus (fi), surumielisyys (fi)
• French: mélancolie (fr) f
• German: Melancholie (de) f, Schwermut (de) f, Wehmut (de) f
• Greek: μελαγχολία (el) f (melancholía)
• Icelandic: þunglyndi (is) n
• Indonesian: melankolia (id)
• Italian: malinconia (it) f
• Japanese: 憂鬱 (ja) (yūutsu), 鬱病 (ja) (utsubyō)
• Korean: 우울 (ko) (uul), 침울 (ko) (chimul)
• Latin: melancholia f
• Lithuanian: melancholija f
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: melankoli m, tungsinn n, svartsyn n, vemod n

  Nynorsk: tunglynde n

• Polish: melancholia (pl) f
• Portuguese: melancolia (pt) f
• Romanian: melancolie (ro) f, tristețe (ro) f
• Russian: меланхо́лия (ru) f (melanxólija)
• Spanish: melancolía (es) f
• Swedish: melankoli (sv) c, svårmod (sv) n, vemod (sv) n, tungsinne (sv) n
• Turkish: melankoli (tr), hüzün (tr)
• Ukrainian: меланхолія f (melanxolija)
• Vietnamese: trầm cảm (vi)

Polish

Alternative forms

• mankalija, mankolia (Kuyavia)
• mankolija (Far Masovian)
• mankoliá (Żywiec)
• menkolijá (“madness”) (Podegrodzie)
• mankolijá (Far Masovian, Kolno, Western Lublin, Eastern Lublin, Lublin Voivodeship)

Etymology

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía)

Late Latin melancholialbor.

Polish melancholia

Learned borrowing from Late Latin melancholia, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /mɛ.lanˈxɔ.lja/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔlja
• Syllabification: me‧lan‧cho‧lia

Noun

melancholia f (related adjective melancholiczny)

1. (psychology) melancholy

Declension

Declension of melancholia

	singular	plural
nominative	melancholia	melancholie
genitive	melancholii	melancholii/melancholij (archaic)
dative	melancholii	melancholiom
accusative	melancholię	melancholie
instrumental	melancholią	melancholiami
locative	melancholii	melancholiach
vocative	melancholio	melancholie

Derived terms

adjectives

• (dialectal) mankolijny

nouns

• melancholiczka
• melancholik

Related terms

adverbs

• melancholicznie

Further reading

• “melancholia”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[1] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “melancholia”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[2] (in Polish)