grammar






 

Question by  Aravindraj (9)

What does "melancholy" mean?

Where does the word come from?

 
+6

Answer by  palaeologus (564)

"Melancholy" is taken from the Greek root word for the body's "black bile" -- it was thought in ancient medicine that having too much of that "dark humour" in one's body made one's mood and disposition similarly dark.

 
+4

Answer by  sofaltis (13)

Melancholy means a sadness worse than depression and closer to despair. It has a literary meaning of a sadness that cannot be lifted, where the person is completely preoccupied with their sadness. It comes from the greek melancholia where "melan" means dark and "cholia" means bile.

 
+4

Answer by  John (9008)

Melancholy means being depressed or sad; it can refer to people or things. The word is Greek in origin, although it has been part of the English language for centuries.

 
+3

Answer by  Lisa6938 (485)

The word "melancholy" is an adjective for the word sad. Melancholy refers to a state of feeling similar to what is known as "blue". Unhappy, depressed or forlorn could also be adjectives for the word melancholy.

 
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