melancholic

English

Alternative forms

• melancholick, melancholicke, melancholike (obsolete)

Etymology

From Latin melancholicus, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολικός (melankholikós, “atrabilious, impulsive, of atrabilious or melancholic temperament”), from μελαγχολία (melankholía, “melancholy”). By surface analysis, melancholy +‎ -ic.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

melancholic (comparative more melancholic, superlative most melancholic)

1. Filled with or affected by melancholy—great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.

   Synonyms: miserable, despondent; see also Thesaurus:sad

   • 1718, Mat[thew] Prior, “Alma: Or, The Progress of the Mind”, in Poems on Several Occasions, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], and John Barber […], →OCLC:

     Just as the melancholic eye / Sees fleets and armies in the sky.

   • 2011, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jerusalem: The Biography – A History of the Middle East, page 268:

     But he was also a natural chronicler: one senses that, even as his schemes collapsed, this aesthetic Arab Quixote knew the stories would make great material for his witty, sharp, melancholic writings.

2. (dated) Pertaining to black bile (melancholy).
3. (classical temperament) Pertaining to the melancholic temperament or its associated personality traits.

Translations

filled with or affected by melancholy

• Bulgarian: меланхоличен (bg) (melanholičen)
• Catalan: melancòlic (ca), malenconiós (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 憂鬱 / 忧郁 (zh) (yōuyù)

• Czech: melancholický (cs)
• Danish: melankolsk
• Dutch: melancholisch (nl), droevig (nl)
• Esperanto: melankolia
• Finnish: apea (fi), melankolinen (fi), alakuloinen (fi), haikea (fi), surumielinen (fi)
• French: mélancolique (fr)
• Galician: melancólico
• Georgian: ნაღვლიანი (naɣvliani), სევდიანი (sevdiani)
• German: melancholisch (de), schwermütig (de)
• Greek: μελαγχολικός (el) (melancholikós)

  Ancient: δύσθυμος (dústhumos), σκυθρωπός (skuthrōpós)

• Hebrew: מלנכולי (melanḥoli), דכדוך (he) (dikhdókh)
• Hungarian: búskomor (hu)
• Indonesian: melankolis (id)
• Ingrian: alakuloin
• Interlingua: melancholia
• Irish: dúchroíoch
• Italian: malinconico (it), melancolico
• Japanese: 憂鬱な (ja) (ゆううつな, yūutsu na), 鬱病の (ja) (うつびょうの, utsubyō no)
• Latin: melancholicus, maestus (la)
• Luxembourgish: melancholesch
• Maori: kainatu, matapōuri, ruku popoi, rāwakiwaki
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sørgmodig, melankolsk (no)

  Nynorsk: sørgmodig, melankolsk

• Old English: drēoriġ
• Polish: melancholiczny (pl), melancholijny (pl)
• Portuguese: melancólico (pt)
• Romanian: melancolic (ro)
• Russian: меланхоли́ческий (ru) (melanxolíčeskij), меланхоли́чный (ru) (melanxolíčnyj)
• Sanskrit: खिन्न (sa) (khinna)
• Scots: dowie
• Scottish Gaelic: mulad m, èislean m, dòlasachd f, tùirse f, dubhachas m, cianalas m, truime f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: снужденост f, утученост f

  Roman: snuždenost (sh) f, utučenost (sh) f, melankòličan (sh)

• Slovak: ^{(please verify)} melanchólia
• Spanish: melancólico (es)
• Swedish: melankolisk (sv)
• Tagalog: lukulok
• Tatar: меланхолик (melanxolik)
• Turkish: melankolik (tr), hüzünlü (tr), kederli (tr)
• Ukrainian: меланхо́лічний m (melanxóličnyj)
• Volapük: glumaladäl (vo)

Noun

melancholic (plural melancholics)

1. A person who is habitually melancholy.
   • 2008 March 16, Garrison Keillor, “Woe Be Gone”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Kafka, Hart Crane, Jackson Pollock, Tennessee Williams, Mark Rothko, melancholics all, so why shouldn’t we accept our own bleakness and take long walks in the winter woods and look at the gnarled limbs of trees and struggle with the inscrutable and accept the beauty of permanent turmoil?

Translations

a person who is habitually melancholy

• Bulgarian: меланхолик (bg) m (melanholik)
• Esperanto: melankoliulo
• Polish: melancholik (pl) m, melancholiczka (pl) f
• Russian: меланхо́лик (ru) m (melanxólik)
• Swedish: melankoliker (sv) c
• Ukrainian: меланхо́лік m (melanxólik)