melancholia

noun

mel·​an·​cho·​lia ˌme-lən-ˈkō-lē-ə 

1

: severe depression characterized especially by profound sadness and despair

Tense, irritable, I crashed into a fit of melancholia and found myself crying over inconsequential problems.

—Susan Wood

A depressed Johnson was not the father figure that Boswell, himself prey to … bouts of melancholia and insecurity, wanted to celebrate.

—Brooke Allen

2

: a sad quality or mood : melancholy

There's a touching melancholia to his voice …

—Ralph Novak

Like Wallace's breakthrough novel, "Infinite Jest," "The Pale King" is pervaded by an air of melancholia, an acute sense of loss.

—Tom McCarthy

melancholiac

ˌme-lən-ˈkō-lē-ˌak 

noun

plural melancholiacs

Did you know?

When is a word full of humor yet far from humorous? Melancholia traces back to Greek melan- ("black, dark") and cholē ("bile"). Medical practitioners once adhered to the system of humors—bodily fluids that included black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. An imbalance of these humors was thought to lead to disorders of the mind and body. One suffering from an excess of black bile (believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen) could become sullen, unsociable, and liable to depression. Today, doctors no longer ascribe physical and mental disorders to disruptions of the four humors, but the word melancholia is still used in psychiatry as a general term for despondency.

Examples of melancholia in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

In this unorthodox history, Moon, a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, casts aside the traditional, heroic portrait of the English ceramicist and entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood and envisions the potter as a symbol of Britain’s post-colonial melancholia. —The New Yorker, 5 Feb. 2024

Harnessing Nordic melancholia to laugh at the misery of capitalist malaise, Finnish master Aki Kaurismäki makes movies about people who don’t say much but feel plenty. —Carlos Aguilar, Los Angeles Times, 22 Nov. 2023

The glimpse of her life as a mother and her melancholia come into play later in the show’s run. —Yvonne Villarreal, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2023

Suffering from a wan melancholia that sits strangely on so strapping a dude, Nick eventually confesses his break-up, which rather ruins the mood of laddish hi-jinks. —Jessica Kiang, Variety, 28 Sep. 2023

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from New Latin, going back to Late Latin, "preponderance of black bile" — more at melancholy entry 1

First Known Use

circa 1553, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

melancholia

noun

mel·​an·​cho·​lia ˌmel-ən-ˈkō-lē-ə 

: a mental condition marked especially by extreme depression

Medical Definition

melancholia

noun

mel·​an·​cho·​lia ˌmel-ən-ˈkō-lē-ə 

: severe depression characterized especially by profound sadness and despair