melancholia
noun
Forms melancholias
- noun Deep sadness or gloom; melancholy
- noun (pathology) depression, characterised by irrational fears, guilt and apathy
Synonyms
gloom melancholy sadness blueness tristesse mirthless blues crestfallenness dejection depression despondency distress dolefulness downheartedness drearihead forlornness grief heartsore ill-being infelicity
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A kind of mental unsoundness characterized by extreme depression of spirits, ill-grounded fears, delusions, and brooding over one particular subject or train of ideas.
Etymology [L. See Melancholy.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “melancholia”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details