What does melancholy mean?
Definitions for melancholy
ˈmɛl ənˌkɒl imelan·cho·ly
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word melancholy.
Princeton's WordNet
melancholynoun
a feeling of thoughtful sadness
melancholynoun
a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed
black bile, melancholyadjective
a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy
melancholy, melancholicadjective
characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
"growing more melancholy every hour"; "her melancholic smile"; "we acquainted him with the melancholy truth"
somber, sombre, melancholyadjective
grave or even gloomy in character
"solemn and mournful music"; "a suit of somber black"; "a somber mood"
Wiktionary
melancholynoun
Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
melancholynoun
Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
melancholyadjective
Affected with great sadness or depression.
Etymology: From μελαγχολία, from μέλας, μελαν- + χολή. Compare the Latin atra bilis.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
Melancholyadjective
Etymology: melancolique, French.
Think of all our miseries
But as some melancholy dream, which has awak’d us
To the renewing of our joys. John Denham, Sophy.If in the melancholy shades below,
The flames of friends and lovers cease to glow;
Yet mine shall sacred last, mine undecay’d,
Burn on through death, and animate my shade. Alexander Pope.How now, sweet Frank; art thou melancholy. William Shakespeare.
He observes Lamech more melancholy than usual, and imagines it to be from a suspicion he has of his wife Adah, whom he loved. John Locke.
MELANCHOLYnoun
1.A disease, supposed to proceed from a redundance of black bile; but it is better known to arise from too heavy and too viscid blood: its cure is in evacuation, nervous medicines, and powerful stimuli. John Quincy
Etymology: melancolie, Fr. from μέλανς and χολη.
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 politick; 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. William Shakespeare, As you like it.
He protested unto them, that he had only been to seek solitary places by an extreme melancholy that had possessed him. Philip Sidney, b. ii.
All these gifts come from him; and if we murmur here, we may at the next melancholy be troubled that God did not make us angels. Jeremy Taylor, holy Living.
This melancholy flatters, but unmans you;
What is it else but penury of soul,
A lazy frost, a numbness of the mind? Dryden.
ChatGPT
MELANCHOLY
Melancholy is a state of prolonged sadness, low mood, or a general feeling of being emotionally down. It is typically characterized by introspection, a sense of heaviness or gloom, and a decrease in interest or pleasure in usual activities. Melancholy can range from mild to severe and may be accompanied by symptoms such as listlessness, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, and negative thoughts or feelings of hopelessness.
Webster Dictionary
Melancholynoun
depression of spirits; a gloomy state continuing a considerable time; deep dejection; gloominess
Melancholynoun
great and continued depression of spirits, amounting to mental unsoundness; melancholia
Melancholynoun
pensive maditation; serious thoughtfulness
Melancholynoun
ill nature
Melancholyadjective
depressed in spirits; dejected; gloomy dismal
Melancholyadjective
producing great evil and grief; causing dejection; calamitous; afflictive; as, a melancholy event
Melancholyadjective
somewhat deranged in mind; having the jugment impaired
Melancholyadjective
favorable to meditation; somber
Etymology: [OE. melancolie, F. mlancolie, L. melancholia, fr. Gr. ; me`las, me`lanos, black + gall, bile. See Malice, and 1st Gall.]
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Melancholy
mel′an-kol-i, n. continued depression of spirits: dejection: a gloomy state of mind causing groundless fears: (Milt.) pensiveness.—adj. gloomy: producing grief.—n. Melanchō′lia, a form of insanity, in which there is continued depression or pain of mind.—adjs. Melanchol′ic, Melanchō′lious, affected with, or caused by, melancholy: dejected: mournful. [Through Fr.,—L.,—Gr. melancholia—melan, black, cholē, bile.]
Editors Contribution
melancholy
You describe something that you see or hear as melancholy when it gives you an intense feeling of sadness. If someone feels or looks melancholy, they feel or look very sad.sadness that lasts for a long period of time, often without any obvious reason.feeling or expressing sadness;a feeling of sadness and of being without hope;Sadness and unhappiness,depression,grief;A feeling or spell of dismally low spirits:blues, dejection, despondence, despondency, doldrums, dolefulness, downheartedness, dumps, dysphoria, funk, gloom, glumness, heavy-heartedness, mope (used in plural), mournfulness,unhappiness.In low spirits:blue,depressed, desolate, dispirited, down, downcast, downhearted, dull, dysphoric, gloomy, heavy-hearted, low, melancholic,spiritless, tristful, unhappy, wistful.suggestive or expressive of sadness or depression of mind or spirit; causing or tending to cause sadness or depression of mind or spirit : DISMAL; depressed in spirits : DEJECTED, SAD;blue devils,desolation, despond,disconsolateness, dispiritedness,dreariness, down in the dumps (informal), forlornness,gloominess, heartsickness, joylessness, miserableness, mopes,oppression,sorrowfulness;Idiom: down at the mouth.Tending to cause sadness or low spirits:blue, cheerless, depressing,dispiriting,joyless,down,miserable, moody,sombre, woeful, glum, mournful,despondent,lugubrious, pensive, sorrowful, disconsolate,doleful, heavy-hearted, woebegone, down in the mouth, low-spirited depression, misery,sorrow, woe, the hump (Brit. informal),low spirits,pensiveness,a gloomy state of mind, especially when habitual or prolonged;sober thoughtfulness;affected with, characterized by, or showing melancholy;depressed,causing melancholy or sadness; saddening;soberly thoughtful;Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
Somber and laconic can be eliminated right away—there are too many exclamation points for the work to be melancholy and laid back in the way those words suggest.
Matched Categories
Usage in printed sourcesFrom:
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Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of melancholy in Chaldean Numerology is: 1
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of melancholy in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9
Examples of melancholy in a Sentence
Society expects man to be a passive social animal who believes like the People of the Field in "Jurgen" that "to do what you always have done" and "what is expected of you" are the twin rules of life. This, is course, is not true. The wanton crucifixion of impulses, the unnecessary blocking and frustration of the drives and urges, are an evil that reflects itself in sophistication, ennui and boredom, dissatisfaction, melancholy, fatigue, anxiety and neurosis.
Suspicion and uneasiness gives an overall mysterious tone or even atonality to a piece, as in object in contention, something I always evaluate. Along with melancholy or disappointment, all of which are valid human emotions and sensitivities.”
As [ Duke of ] Wellington said, ‘ nothing save a battle loss is quite so melancholy as a battle won. ’ We won the battle and now we have to watch the movie.
It is a melancholy truth that even great men have their poor relations.
Sweet bird, that shun the noise of folly, most musical, most melancholy!
Popularity rank by frequency of use
References
Translations for melancholy
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- حزنArabic
- melancholie, melancholickýCzech
- melankoli, melankolskDanish
- Schwermut, Melancholie, schwermütig, melancholischGerman
- μελαγχολίαGreek
- melancolía, melancólica, melancólicoSpanish
- ملایمPersian
- melankolinenFinnish
- mélancolie, mélancoliqueFrench
- mulad, cianalas, truime, dòlasachd, tùirse, èislean, dubhachasScottish Gaelic
- דכדוךHebrew
- melancholiaInterlingua
- piluIndonesian
- þunglyndiIcelandic
- malinconia, malinconico, melancolicoItalian
- 憂鬱, 鬱病Japanese
- ವಿಷಣ್ಣತೆKannada
- 우울, 침울Korean
- matapōuri, kainatu, rāwakiwaki, ruku popoiMāori
- droevig, weemoed, melancholisch, melancholieDutch
- tungsinn, melankoli, svartsynNorwegian
- melancholiaPolish
- melancolia, melancólicoPortuguese
- melancolie, tristețe, melancolicRomanian
- меланхолия, меланхоличныйRussian
- utučenost, снужденост, melankòlija, утученост, snuždenostSerbo-Croatian
- melanchóliaSlovak
- svårmod, melankoli, melankoliskSwedish
- hüzün, melankoli, melankolikTurkish
- u sầuVietnamese
- glumaladälVolapük
- 悲哀, 忧郁Chinese
Get even more translations for melancholy »
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