melancholic
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.
melancholic means filled with or affected by melancholy—great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 76 out of 100.
Why this word is great
MELANCHOLIC — [Adjective] Characterized by or inducing a pensive, profound, and often prolonged sadness. From Latin melancholicus, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολικός (melankholikós, "atrabilious, melancholic"), from μέλας (mélas, "black") + χολή (kholḗ, "bile"). Unlike the transient pang of "sadness" or the theatrical excess of "lugubrious" mourning, melancholic describes a sorrow that has settled into the bones, a temperament rather than a mood. It is the specific blue of twilight on an empty square, the quiet dignity of a library whose most important books will never be opened again, and the scent of rain on dry earth that brings no relief—a state not of despair, but of a deep and familiar communion with loss.
adj
- Filled with or affected by melancholy—great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.“Just as the melancholic eye / Sees fleets and armies in the sky.”
- Pertaining to black bile (melancholy).
- Pertaining to the melancholic temperament or its associated personality traits.
noun
- A person who is habitually melancholy.“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?”