gloomies

English

WOTD – 10 October 2021

Etymology

A fanciful plural of gloomy: gloomy +‎ -ies (suffix forming plural nouns ending in y). Gloom is derived from Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English glōm (“gloaming, twilight; darkness”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰley- (“to gleam, glow, shimmer”).

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡluːmiz/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡlumiz/
Audio (General American): (file)
Hyphenation: gloom‧ies

Noun

gloomies pl (plural only)

(informal) Preceded by the: gloom, despondency.
- 1825, [Richard Rotton], “Canto I”, in Herban, a Poem. In Four Cantos, London: G. B. Whittaker, […], →OCLC, stanza XXXVI, page 23:
  The drear departing day, the coming night, / Increase the gloomies of the tempest's sound, / And damp the last faint hope those trembling souls had found.
- 1840, [Catherine] Gore, chapter XI, in The Dowager; or, The New School for Scandal. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […] , →OCLC, page 295:
  […] Chichester was too good-natured not to exert himself for the enlivenment of a handsome girl suffering under a fit of the gloomies—more especially of one who happened to be an intimate friend of his sweet Cecilia!
- 1964, H[erbert] E[rnest] Bates, chapter 15, in A Moment in Time, London: Pollinger in Print, published 2006, →ISBN, page 168:
  If anything happens to me I want you to promise me something. Promise me you'll make a new life for yourself. As soon as you can. You're very young. Don't get the gloomies and be a martyr, please.
- 1996, Jeffrey Prentiss, “A Cost-conscious House in North Carolina”, in Country Houses (Fine Homebuilding Great Houses), Newtown, Conn.: Taunton Press, published 1997, →ISBN, page 14:
  The Pacific Northwest is often overcast, and the Grumneys' decision to keep almost all of their trees around and in the middle of the compound meant we could be into the dark and gloomies if we were not careful.
- 2004 August, Flo Fitzpatrick, chapter 29, in Ghost of a Chance, New York, N.Y.: Zebra Books, →ISBN, page 287:
  But thanks for the opening night gift. If anything can keep away the gloomies and bad luck, this will.
- 2018 December 12, Charles Bramesco, “A Spoonful of Nostalgia Helps the Calculated Mary Poppins Returns Go Down”, in The A.V. Club‎^[1], archived from the original on 24 May 2019:
  He's down in the dumps because nobody wants to buy his art and his wife died, while she's got a case of the gloomies in response to public apathy for the plight of the underclass.

Related terms

Translations

gloom, despondency — see gloom,‎ despondency

Noun

gloomies

(informal) plural of gloomy