melancholia means deep sadness or gloom; melancholy.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, melancholia ranks #11,726 of 14,448 for Funniest Words.
Why “melancholia” is a great word
A specific, severe form of depressive disorder distinguished by profound dejection, irrational fears, guilt, and a pervasive loss of pleasure. From Late Latin melancholia, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía, "black bile"), from μέλας (mélas, "black, dark") + χολή (kholḗ, "bile"), reflecting the ancient humoral theory of medicine. Unlike "melancholy," which evokes a wistful, often poetic pensiveness, or the broad clinical category of "depression," melancholia denotes a distinct and consuming pathology. It is the paralysis of will in a sunlit room, the taste of ash in a favorite meal, the silent scream against a backdrop of ordinary life—an ancient darkness made literal, the black bile still pooling centuries after the humors were dismissed.
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.
noun
- Deep sadness or gloom; melancholy
- depression, characterised by irrational fears, guilt and apathy
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