MELANCHOLIA

PRONUNCIATION: (mel-uhn-KOH-lee-uh)

MEANING: noun: A feeling of deep sadness; depression.

ETYMOLOGY: From Latin melancholia, from Greek melancholia (the condition of having an excess of black bile), from melan- (black) + chole (bile). Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghel- (to shine), which is also the source of words such as yellow, gold, glimmer, gloaming, glimpse, glass, arsenic, and cholera. Earliest documented use: 1398.

NOTES: In earlier times it was believed that four humors controlled human behavior and an imbalance resulted in disease. According to this thinking, an excess of black bile secreted by the spleen resulted in melancholia or ill humor.
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MELANCHOVIA - pizza made with honey and small salt-water fishlets

MELANCHORIA - a bad place to moor your boat

ME AN CHOLIO - down by the schoolyard, according to Paul Simon

MEL AND CHOLIA - a new Goth singing group