Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Affected with or subject to melancholy.
- adjective Of or relating to melancholia.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Affected with melancholy; gloomy; hypochondriac.
- Produced by melancholy; expressive or suggestive of melancholy; somber; gloomy; mournful: as, melancholic strains.
- Producing melancholy; unfortunate; causing sorrow.
- noun One who is affected with mental gloom; a hypochondriac; in pathology, one who suffers from melancholia; a melancholiac.
- noun A gloomy state of mind.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Given to melancholy; depressed; melancholy; dejected; unhappy.
- noun One affected with a gloomy state of mind.
- noun A gloomy state of mind; melancholy.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Filled with or
affected bymelancholy —greatsadness ordepression , especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature. - noun A person who is habitually
melancholy .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun someone subject to melancholia
- adjective characterized by or causing or expressing sadness
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I will go out on a limb and suggest a certain melancholic mood perchance?
Rebecca Reminds - They're Perfectly Normal kittenpie 2006
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Whether we identify as melancholic, or a classic Meyers-Briggs Introvert-Sensing-Thinking-Judging, or excuse our disheveled bedroom as a sign of our creativity, we take comfort in classifying our personalities, even as we insist on our individuality.
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The melancholic is the person whose mum and dad made it impossible for him to maintain the illusion that normally keeps this awareness at bay.
MANUFACTURING DEPRESSION Gary Greenberg 2010
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Many great artists — and not only they — were described as melancholic, among them
Dictionary of the History of Ideas RUDOLF WITTKOWER 1968
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Rembrandt and Velázquez — was ever described as melancholic and, indeed, showed any traces of the affliction.
Dictionary of the History of Ideas RUDOLF WITTKOWER 1968
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This temperament the Elizabethans would have called melancholic; and Hamlet seems to be an example of it, as Lear is of a temperament mixedly choleric and sanguine.
Shakespearean Tragedy Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth 1893
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But when I am melancholic, that is how I like to play.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Telegraph Staff 2011
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Speaking of Simon, Ritter recalls the melancholic side of that legendary songwriter in the epic "Another New World," as well as his perky side in "Lark."
NPR Topics: News 2010
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All in all there are also glimpses especially in the Piano Quartet of a subtle lyrical and romantic aura that produces some ethereal sounds that recall melancholic and mellow moods.
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Outfitted primarily with acoustic guitars, bass, and muted drums, their approach can be described as melancholic folk-pop (think Simon & Garfunkel, Ida, or Essex Green).
unknown title 2009
mkb commented on the word melancholic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_temperaments#Melancholic
May 14, 2008