melancholy

English

Alternative forms

• melancholly, melancholie, melancholious (obsolete)

Etymology

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”). Compare the Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”). The adjectival use is a Middle English innovation, perhaps influenced by the suffixes -y, -ly.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈmelənkəli/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈmɛ.lənˌkɑ.li/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

melancholy (countable and uncountable, plural melancholies)

1. (historical) Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
   • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:

     , Bk.I, New York 2001, p.148:

     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.

2. Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.

   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     I have neither the scholar’s melancholy, which is emulation; nor the musician’s, which is fantastical; nor the courtier’s, which is proud; nor the soldier’s, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer’s, which is politic; nor the lady’s, which is nice; nor the lover’s, which is all these; but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my travels; in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VI, in Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 111:

     "The ancients referred melancholy to the mind, the moderns make it matter of digestion—to either case my plan applies," said Lady Mandeville.

   • 1936 Sept. 15, F. Scott Fitzgerald, letter to Beatrice Dance:

     As to Ernest... He is quite as nervously broken down as I am but it manifests itself in different ways. His inclination is towards megalomania and mine towards melancholy.

Derived terms

• solemncholy

Translations

Sadness or depression

• Arabic: سوداء‎

  Egyptian Arabic: ماليخوليا‎

• Aromanian: milanculii f
• Azerbaijani: melanxoliya
• Basque: malenkonia
• Belarusian: меланхолія f (mjelanxólija)
• Bulgarian: меланхолия (bg) f (melanholija)
• Catalan: malenconia (ca) f
• 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
• Esperanto: melankolio
• Estonian: melanhoolia
• Finnish: melankolia (fi), apeus (fi), surumielisyys (fi)
• French: mélancolie (fr) f
• Galician: melancolía (gl) f
• German: Melancholie (de) f, Schwermut (de) f, Wehmut (de) f
• Greek: μελαγχολία (el) f (melancholía)
• Hebrew: מלנכוליה‎
• Hungarian: melankólia (hu)
• Icelandic: þunglyndi (is) n
• 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
• Manchu: ᠠᡴᠠᠴᡠᠨ (akacun)
• Maori: kainatu, rāwakiwaki
• Norwegian:

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

  Nynorsk: tunglynde n

• Persian: مالیخولیا‎ (fa) (mâlixuliyâ), مالنخولیا‎ (mâlenxuliyâ)
• Polish: melancholia (pl) f
• Portuguese: melancolia (pt) f
• Romanian: melancolie (ro) f, tristețe (ro) f
• Russian: меланхо́лия (ru) f (melanxólija)
• Scottish Gaelic: dòlasachd f, mulad m, èislean m, cianalas m, tùirse f, truime f, dubhachas m
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: меланхолија f, меланколија f

  Roman: melanhòlija (sh) f, melankòlija (sh) f

• Sicilian: malancunìa (scn)
• Slovak: melanchólia
• Slovene: melanholija
• Spanish: melancolía (es) f
• Swedish: melankoli (sv) c, svårmod (sv) n, vemod (sv) n, tungsinne (sv) n
• Tajik: молихулиё (molixuliyo)
• Turkish: melankoli (tr), hüzün (tr)

  Ottoman Turkish: سودا‎ (sevda)

• Ukrainian: меланхолія f (melanxolija)
• Vietnamese: trầm cảm (vi)
• Walloon: miråcoleye (wa) f

Adjective

melancholy (comparative more melancholy, superlative most melancholy)

1. (literary) Affected with great sadness or depression.

   Melancholy people don't talk much.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎^[1]:

     “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes […] . And then, when you see [the senders], you probably find that they are the most melancholy old folk with malignant diseases. […]”

   • 1981, Greg Kihn, Steve Wright, “The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)”, in RocKihnRoll‎^[2], performed by The Greg Kihn Band:

     And then the band slowed the tempo / And the music gets you down / Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah / It was the same old song / With a melancholy sound / Ah-ah-ah, ah-ah-ah-ah, ah

Synonyms

• (thoughtful sadness): melancholic
• See also Thesaurus:sad

Translations

affected with sadness or depression — see melancholic

Related terms

• melancholic
• sadness
• melancholia