melancholyn.1
/ˈmɛlənk(ə)li/, /ˈmɛləŋk(ə)li/, U.S. /ˈmɛl(ə)nˌkɑli/ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > anger > irascibility > [noun]
hastinessc1325
melancholya1375
hastivenessa1393
hastivessa1393
rese?a1400
hastivitya1500
fumishness1519
choler1530
firishness1568
cholericness1571
waspishness1593
fieriness1625
irascibility1750
parlousness1755
temper1828
provocability1834
quickness1863
tempersomeness1909
a1375 (c1350) William of Palerne (1867) 4362 (MED) Meke þe of þi malencoli for marring of þi-selue.
c1395 G. Chaucer Wife of Bath's Tale 252 And if that she be riche of heigh parage, Thanne seistow that it is a tormentrye To suffre hir pryde and hir malencolye.
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 1981 (MED) Lend agayn to þi lande..Þat I mete þe in my malicoly.
1451–1500 (c1400) Vision of Tundale 76 (MED) Þe man speke to hym curtesly And brought hym out of his malycoly.
1487 (a1380) J. Barbour Bruce (St. John's Cambr.) xvi. 128 Vith that the king come hastely, And in his gret malancoly,..To schir Colyne sic dusche he gave.
a1500 (?c1300) Bevis of Hampton (Chetham) l. 582 Iosyan..Toke hym vp and kyssud hym swete, His malincoly there to abate.
1525 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles II. xv. 29 The kynge beyng in his malencoly, assone as he sawe hym he sayd in great yre, certesse vncle of Lancastre, ye shall nat attayne as yet to your entent.
1567 R. Sempill Deeclaratioun Lordis Iust Quarrell (single sheet) For wickit lyfe imprisont was Ferquhaird, Quha slew him self of proude melancolie.
c1580 ( tr. Bk. Alexander (1927) III. ii. 5652 Na for the King of Greces saik Sall na man melancoly maik.
2.
a. Black bile, one of the four chief fluids or cardinal humours recognized by ancient and medieval physiologists (see humour n. 1a). Formerly also called choler adust. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > secretory organs > secretion > [noun] > fluid secretion > humours > specific humours
phlegmc1250
moisturea1387
melancholyc1390
cholera1393
black humoura1398
choleraa1398
melancholiaa1398
coldness1398
sanguineness1530
atrabile1594
combust choler1607
primary humour1621
black bile1634
cambium1634
yellow bile1634
kapha1937
pitta1937
dosha1959
c1390 G. Chaucer Nun's Priest's Tale 4123 Right as the humour of malencolie [v.rr. Malecolie, malancolye] Causeth ful many a man in sleep to crie For fere of blake beres or boles blake.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm.) (1894) 202 Also þer is engendrid anoþer substaunce þat is..clepid malancoli.
1495 Trevisa's Bartholomeus De Proprietatibus Rerum (de Worde) iv. xi. 95 Malencoly is bred of trowbled drast of blode and hath his name of melon that is blak and calor that is humour, so is sayd as it were a blak humour, for the colour therof lynyth toward blackenes.
1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) 8 In the body of Man be foure principall humours: Bloudde: Fleume: Choler: Melancoly.
1578 J. Banister Hist. Man v. f. 70 A short vessell, whereby the splene belcheth vp melancolye into the ventricle.
1583 P. Barrough Methode of Phisicke iii. xxx. 118 The Iaundies is nothing else but a shedding either of yelow choler, or of melancholie all ouer the body.
1653 H. More Antidote against Atheisme ii. vi. 65 There are Receptacles in the Body of Man and Emunctories to draine them of superfluous Choler, Melancholy and the like.
a1834 S. T. Coleridge Notes & Lect. on Shakespeare (1875) 117 The four humours, choler, melancholy, phlegm, and the sanguine portion.
1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia I. 499/3 The four humours—blood, phlegm, choler (yellow bile), and melancholy (black bile).
1991 Shakespeare Q. 42 319 Natural melancholy, the cold dry humor or black bile that..causes such symptoms as passivity, unsociability, fury [etc.].
b. Medicine. Originally: a pathological condition thought to result from an excess of black bile in the body, characterized in early references by sullenness, ill temper, brooding, causeless anger, and unsociability, and later by despondency and sadness. Later: severe depression, melancholia. Now archaic and historical.From the 17th cent. onwards the word was used in its later sense without aetiological implications.In some quots. it is difficult to tell whether this sense or one of the associated symptoms (see senses 1 and 3a) is intended; cf. quot. 1859 at sense 3a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > melancholia
melancholya1398
hypochondriac1599
melancholia1607
melancholy madness1607
hypochondria1648
hypochondriacism1690
hypo1701
hypocona1704
hyps1710
hypochondriasis1722
hyp1736
hypochondriasm1742
hypochondrism1822
biophilia1857
lypemania1874
phrenalgia1890
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disordered secretion > [noun] > bilious disorders
black choleraa1398
black humoura1398
cholera1398
melancholya1398
choler adusta1400
black choler?a1425
melancholiousness1526
burnt choler1578
atrabile1594
combust choler1607
black bile1634
polycholia1799
bile1803
acholia1835
biliousness1856
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 36v A noble man..fel in to suche a madnes of melancolye þat he in alle wise trowed þat he himsilf was a catte.
a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) 3710 (MED) Þe man wraþþyþ hym lyghtly For lytyl, as yn malyncoly.
a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) v. 360 Thy swevenes ek and al swich fantasie Drif out, and lat hem faren to meschaunce; For they procede of thi malencolie.
?1473 W. Caxton tr. R. Le Fèvre Recuyell Hist. Troye (1894) I. lf. 10 After many right sorowful syghes engendrid in þe roote of malencolie.
1578 H. Lyte tr. R. Dodoens Niewe Herball i. lvii. 84 The dissease called choler or melancholy.
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 99 That windy malancholy arising from the shorter ribs, which so saddeth the mind of the diseased.
1677 J. Webster (title) The displaying of supposed witchcraft, wherein is affirmed that there are many sorts of deceivers and impostors, and divers persons under a passive delusion of melancholy and fancy. But that [etc.].
1722 J. Quincy Lexicon Physico-medicum (ed. 2) Melancholy [is] supposed to proceed from a Redundance of black Bile; but it is better known to arise from too heavy and too viscid a Blood.
1866 W. H. O. Sankey Lect. Mental Dis. ii. 33 There are cases of melancholy which are accompanied by great restlessness.
1937 W. S. Maugham in Cosmopolitan July 166/1 Some of the convicts..had such a nostalgia for France that they went mad with melancholy.
1954 Shakespeare Q. 5 346 Lady Macbeth..is asking that her blood take on the grossness and thickness characteristic of melancholy.
1997 J. Updike Toward End of Time 217 Senna and hellebore to purge with their heat the clogging of black bile that induces constipation and melancholy.
3.
a. Sadness, dejection, esp. of a pensive nature; gloominess; pensiveness or introspection; an inclination or tendency to this. Also: †perturbation (obsolete).As with sense 1, regarded in medieval physiology as a symptom of an excess of black bile in the body. See sense 2.In the Elizabethan period, and for some centuries thereafter, the affectation of melancholy was a fashionable mark of intellectual or aesthetic refinement. Cf. sense 3d.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [noun]
melancholya1393
melancholic1526
melancholiness1528
allichollya1616
black humour1621
spleen1664
atrabilariousness1731
black dog1776
atrabiliousness1882
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) iii. 125 (MED) And al it is Malencolie, Which groweth of the fantasie Of love, that me wol noght loute.
a1425 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (1987) v. 1216 He ne et ne drank, for his malencolye, And ek from every compaignye he fledde.
1485 W. Caxton tr. Thystorye & Lyf Charles the Grete sig. i.j/1 Whyche also slewe my cosyn the kyng Claryon, for whome I am in grete melancolye.
c1555 H. Watson tr. Valentine & Orson (1937) 120 Of this vysyon valentyne was in grete thought, and in grete melancoly, and so passed the nyght..without takynge ony reste.
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) i. sig. N3v The Hare, [gave] her sleights; the Cat, his melancholie.
1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. xii. sig. M4v Musicke did apply Her curious skill, the warbling notes to play, To driue away the dull Melancholy.
1593 M. Drayton Idea sig. B2v And being rouzde out of melancholly, Flye whirle-winde thoughts vnto the heauens quoth he.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) v. i. 34 My minde was troubled with deepe Melancholly . View more context for this quotation
1645 J. Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 37 But hail thou Goddes, sage and holy, Hail divinest Melancholy.
1692 J. Dryden Cleomenes i. i. 2 This Melancholly Flatters, but Unmans you. What is it else, but Penury of Soul; A Lazie Frost, a numness of the Mind?
1716 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. 1 Oct. (1965) I. 277 It gives me too much melancholy to see so agreable a young Creature bury'd alive.
1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones III. viii. xiii. 276 I now abandoned my Books, and gave myself up for a whole Month to the Efforts of Melancholy and Despair. View more context for this quotation
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe II. xiv. 265 But here he was interrupted by his fair physician, a smile which she could scarce suppress dimpling for an instant a face, whose general expression was that of contemplative melancholy.
1859 J. C. Bucknill Psychol. Shakspeare 240 Care should be taken..to distinguish between melancholy and melancholia.
1881 A. Trollope Ayala's Angel II. xxxv. 166 After that they went out and ate their dinner at Bolivia's with much satisfaction, but still with a bearing of deep melancholy, as was proper on such an occasion.
a1902 S. Butler Way of All Flesh (1903) xxxiv. 149 His father's letter gave him one of his many fits of melancholy over his own worthlessness.
1918 B. Tarkington Magnificent Ambersons xvi. 234 He was inclined to melancholy this morning, but seemed jolly enough just now.
1947 N. Frye Fearful Symmetry iii. 75 The separation of nature from man, which drives him from reflection to melancholy, and from melancholy to suicidal madness.
1989 C. S. Murray Crosstown Traffic iii. 73 Post-coital tristesse is simply another manifestation of the existential melancholy which subsumes all but the most overtly celebratory of Hendrix's songs.
b. A cause of sadness; an annoyance, anxiety, or vexation. Usually in plural. Now rare (chiefly U.S.).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of annoyance or vexation > [noun] > cause of annoyance or vexation
thornc1230
dreicha1275
painc1375
cumbrance1377
diseasec1386
a hair in one's necka1450
molestationc1460
incommodity?a1475
melancholya1475
ensoigne1477
annoyance1502
traik1513
incommode1518
corsie1548
eyesore1548
fashery1558
cross1573
spite1577
corrosive1578
wasp1588
cumber1589
infliction1590
gall1591
distaste1602
plague1604
rub1642
disaccommodation1645
disgust1654
annoyment1659
bogle1663
rubber1699
noyancea1715
chagrins1716
ruffle1718
fasha1796
nuisance1814
vex1815
drag1857
bugbear1880
nark1918
pain in the neck (also arse, bum, etc.)1933
sod1940
chizz1953
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [noun] > depressing quality > depressing thing, person, or circumstances
cloudc1430
palla1450
melancholya1475
downdraughta1681
Job's comforter1738
damper1748
killjoy1776
wet blanket1810
down-drag1814
chill1821
dismals1829
shadow1855
down1856
a skeleton at the feast (or banquet)1857
wet blanket1857
depressor1868
dampener1887
sorry-go-round1898
wet smack1927
bringdown1935
droopy drawers1939
big chill1943
party pooper1947
misery1951
party poop1951
grinch1966
downer1969
a1475 ( S. Scrope tr. Dicts & Sayings Philosophers (Bodl. 943) (1999) 226 (MED) A grete house puttith his maister in many malancolies.
1644 J. Milton Areopagitica 21 Which to a diligent writer is the greatest melancholy and vexation that can befall.
1674 Hogan-Moganides 44 Spirits may transcend the Lees, As much when Melanchollies oppress, As Possit-Sack transcends a Copp'ress.
1701 Ld. Godolphin Let. 4 Mar. in H. L. Snyder Marlborough–Godolphin Corr. (1975) I. 2 When wee came to St. James's at dinner, twas a great surprise and a melancholly not to find you.
1891 H. James Let. 20 July (1981) III. 347 These melancholies haven't prevented the London season from roaring and elbowing along.
1941 W. J. Cash Mind of South iii. ii. 255 It would no longer be necessary to wait impatiently for Saturday night to..achieve catharsis for all melancholies and frustrations and irritations in the horse-opera.
c. A mood, state, or episode of sadness, dejection, or introspection. Formerly frequently in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [noun] > state of
melancholya1586
blueness1867
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [noun] > melancholy fit or mood
melancholya1586
blues1741
penseroso1763
a1586 Sir P. Sidney Arcadia (1590) i. iv. sig. D1v Two or three straungers, whom inwarde melancholies hauing made weery of the worldes eyes, haue come to spende their liues among the countrie people.
1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin. 1319/2 Entring by litle and litle out of his present melancholies into his former misfortunes.
1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet ii. ii. 147 He straitway grew into a melancholy.
1650 Bp. J. Taylor Rule & Exercises Holy Living ii. §6. 130 If we murmure here, we may at the next melancholy be troubled that God did not make us to be Angels, or Stars.
1774 E. Burke Corr. (1844) I. 480 In spite of all my efforts, I fall into a melancholy which is inexpressible.
1798 C. Smith Young Philosopher I. 64 A deep yet soft melancholy succeeded.
1859 Atlantic Monthly Oct. 500/2 This her poor book is full of saddest follies, Of tearful smiles and laughing melancholies.
1864 A. Trollope Can you forgive Her? I. x. 78 Her first two letters from Switzerland had been very pleasant; but after that there had seemed to have crept over her a melancholy which she unconsciously transferred to her words.
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. xxv. 488 Toward the end of Spenser's first year on the Herald—it was early summer—he fell into a melancholy so profound and so prolonged that Susan became alarmed.
1994 D. Porter Frommer's Comprehensive Trav. Guide Portugal '94–'95 i. 12 Songs that she doesn't write herself are based on love poems from Portuguese literature and evoke a melancholy known to the Portuguese as saudade.
d. Tender, sentimental, or reflective sadness; sadness giving rise to or considered as a subject for poetry, sentimental reflection, etc., or as a source of aesthetic pleasure.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [noun] > pensiveness
pensiveheadc1425
pensivenessc1425
pensienessc1450
pensifulnessc1450
thoughtfulness1594
melancholy?1614
thoughtinessa1658
pensive1664
?1614 W. Drummond Mad.: When as Shee smiles in Poems A sweet melancholie my sences keepes.
1637 J. Milton Comus 19 I..began Wrapt in a pleasing fit of melancholy To meditate my rural minstrelsie.
1796 S. T. Coleridge Sonnet to Bowles [2nd vers.] 8 Their mild and manliest melancholy lent A mingled charm, which oft the pang consigned To slumber.
a1817 J. Austen Northanger Abbey (1818) II. vii. 136 The shock however being less real than the relief, offered it no injury; and she began to talk with easy gaiety of the delightful melancholy which such a grove inspired. View more context for this quotation
1844 A. B. Welby Melancholy in Poems 117 Love's delicious melancholy.
1878 H. James Europeans II. v. 179 As with her charming undulating step she moved along the clean, grassy margin of the road,..she was even conscious of a sort of luxurious melancholy.
1894 ‘A. Hope’ Prisoner of Zenda xiii. 176 One of my friends..sang me amorous songs in a mellow voice and induced in me a pleasing melancholy.
1929 Travel Jan. 9/2 A clan of cultivated élégants, who live in studied seclusion and perform pious works with charming melancholy and enviable grace.
1940 Kenyon Rev. Spring 208 De Chavannes is..robustly unaesthetic compared with these creatures of counterfeit sentiment, oozing with a spurious melancholy.
1985 S. Hastings Nancy Mitford x. 236 The dying beauty of the autumnal countryside induced in her a pervasive feeling of melancholy.
4. Sullenness, anger, or sadness personified.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > anger > irascibility > ill humour > [noun]
melancholya1393
morosity1534
distemperature1571
distemperance1574
diverseness1574
sullennessa1586
spleen1596
distemper1604
mustinessa1625
canker?1635
distemperedness1649
moroseness1653
tetricalness1653
moodiness1694
dishumour1712
ill humour1748
sulkiness1760
stuff1787
funk1808
sumphishness1830
spleenishness1847
moodishness1857
grouchiness1925
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) iii. 27 (MED) The ferst of hem Malencolie Is cleped, which in compaignie An hundred times in an houre Wol as an angri beste loure.
a1425 (?a1400) G. Chaucer Romaunt Rose (Hunterian) 4998 Malencoly, that angry sire.
a1616 W. Shakespeare King John (1623) iii. iii. 42 If that surly spirit melancholy Had bak'd thy bloud, and made it heauy, thicke. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) v. iii. 66 O hatefull Error, Melancholies Childe. View more context for this quotation
1645 J. Milton L'Allegro in Poems 30 Hence loathed Melancholy Of Cerberus, and blackest midnight born.
1751 T. Gray Elegy 11 And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
1820 J. Keats Ode on Melancholy in Lamia & Other Poems 142 In the very temple of Delight Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine.
1869 J. T. Coleridge Mem. J. Keble iv. 65 Melancholy is a common attendant on poetic genius.
1991 G. Godwin (title) Father Melancholy's Daughter.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > poetry > poem or piece of poetry > other types of poem > [noun] > sad poem
elegy1559
melancholy1596
epode1646
1596 T. Lodge Margarite of Amer. sig. Lv Another melancholy of his, for the strangenesse thereof, deserueth to be registred.
1596 T. Lodge Margarite of Amer. sig. Lv Another [poem]..hauing the right nature of an Italian melancholie, I haue set down in this place.
Compounds
melancholy-mad adj. now archaic and historical afflicted with melancholia.
ΚΠ
1616 R. Anton Philosophers Satyrs 14 This makes the worthy Artist, dull and sad, And rare deserts, most melancholy mad.
1764 J. Grieve tr. S. P. Krasheninnikov Hist. Kamtschatka xiv. 208 In half an hour he begins to rave as if in a fever; and is either merry or melancholy mad, according to his peculiar constitution.
1895 T. Hardy Jude ii. vii. 153 Now I am melancholy mad, what with drinking and one thing and another.
1943 Speculum 18 277 Merlin becomes violent and melancholy-mad because his three younger brothers are among many killed under him in battle.
melancholy madness n. now archaic and historical = melancholia n. 2a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > melancholia
melancholya1398
hypochondriac1599
melancholia1607
melancholy madness1607
hypochondria1648
hypochondriacism1690
hypo1701
hypocona1704
hyps1710
hypochondriasis1722
hyp1736
hypochondriasm1742
hypochondrism1822
biophilia1857
lypemania1874
phrenalgia1890
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Foure-footed Beastes 349 I iudged him [sc. a horse] to be vexed with a melancholy madnesse, called of the Physitians, Mania, or rather Melancholia.
1650 J. Bulwer Anthropometamorphosis 207 Some in Mania or Melancholy madnesse, have attempted the same.
1769 ‘Junius’ Stat Nominis Umbra (1772) I. vii. 47 The melancholy madness of poetry, without the inspiration.
1854 C. Dickens Hard Times v. 27 The piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness.
1995 Parabola (Electronic ed.) 20 85 Sweet Jesus, talking his melancholy madness, stood up in the boat and the sea lay down.
ΚΠ
1676 J. Cooke Mellificium Chirurg. (ed. 3) 812 Of Melancholy Purgers, Simple and Compound.
ΚΠ
1660 Trial Regic. 171 He was melancholly sick.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > restoratives, tonics, or stimulants > [noun] > restoratives for faintness
swooning-water1574
sal volatile1654
melancholy water1670
salt of hartshorn1680
sal1706
salt1740
eau-de-Luce1756
restorative1825
smelling-salts1841
salts-bottle1847
Preston salts1858
1670 H. Wolley Queen-like Closet i. 21 The Melancholy water.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
melancholyadj.n.2
/ˈmɛlənk(ə)li/, /ˈmɛləŋk(ə)li/, U.S. /ˈmɛl(ə)nˌkɑli/ A. adj.† 2. Angry; sullen. Obsolete.
1. Medicine.† c. Causing melancholy. Obsolete.
a. Affected with or constitutionally liable to melancholy as a medical condition; accompanying melancholy. Now archaic and historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [adjective] > melancholic
melancholya1393
hypochondrical1586
hypochondriac1599
sullen-sick1614
hypochondriacal1620
mirachial1621
hypochondriatic1658
hipped1712
melancholic1809
hypochondric1871
melancholiac1906
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. 402 Of therthe, which is cold and drye, The kind of man Malencolie Is cleped.
a1425 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (Pierpont Morgan) f. 39 Malencolye men falleþ in to þese and many oþer wondirful passiouns.
a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) f. 233v The contemplacyon of suche, turneth eyther to supsticyousnes,..or,..to a melancoly folysshnes.
1542 A. Borde Compend. Regyment Helth viii. sig. D.iii Melancoly men may take theyr pleasure.
1617 J. Woodall Surgions Mate 226 It is also effectuall to bee giuen to melancholly people which are voyd of reason.
1698 M. Henry Disc. Meekness (1822) 80 The quietness of spirit will help..to suppress melancholy vapours.
1732 J. Arbuthnot Pract. Rules of Diet i. 260 All Spices are bad for melancholy People.
1961 ELH 28 25 Renaissance physiology..argued that, since the melancholy person was unusually heavy dry, and cold, the cure was to make the body less heavy, dry, and cold.
b. Relating to, characteristic of, dominated by, or containing the humour black bile. Now archaic and historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > secretory organs > secretion > [adjective] > humours > specific
moista1393
cholerica1398
melancholya1398
radicala1398
sanguinea1398
adusta1400
phlegmatica1400
adusted1547
phlegmatical1586
humid1604
sanguineous1732
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 36v Whanne any derk þinge heleþ þe brayn, as malincolie flewme, it nediþ þat þe pacyent drede.
a1425 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (Pierpont Morgan) f. 38v It nedeþ þat it be medlid with blood..to fede þe malencolye membris.
c1475 ( Surg. Treat. in MS Wellcome 564 f. 50v (MED) The 4 spere of þe erþe..is in kynde cold and drie & makiþ blood malancolie and in partie watri.
1578 J. Banister Hist. Man i. f. 70v The splene might poure forth into the ventricle melancholie iuyce.
1601 T. Wright Passions of Minde ix. 66 A little melancholy blood may quickly change the temperature, and render it [sc. the heart] more apte for a melancholy passion.
1610 G. Markham Maister-peece ii. cxii. 404 It proceedeth from melancholy and filthy bloud.
1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. I. iii. 48 As to his person, he was very unhandsome, of a melancholy complexion.
1656 J. Smith Compl. Pract. Physick 306 A crooked melancholy vein under the Tongue.
1704 J. Trapp Abra-Mule ii. i. 544 Melancholy Blood retards the Springs Of his unactive Soul.
1884 Littell's Living Age 5 July 15 The worship of the unknowable and the worship of humanity are likely to be connected as long as they live with the melancholy humors of a lunatic asylum.
1954 Shakespeare Q. 5 346 The contextual fact that Lady Macbeth believes melancholy blood can in some way impede and nullify the operations of conscience.
1990 F. Starn Soup of Day iii. xxii. 86 You're sure it's the flu?.. And not just a melancholy choler or the vapors?
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disordered secretion > [adjective] > bilious disorders > causing
melancholicc1385
melancholiousa1400
melancholya1425
choleric?1533
a1425 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (Pierpont Morgan) f. 103 Lepra comeþ of diuers causes..samtyme of yuel diet, as malencolie mete, to colde & drye.
1649 R. Baxter Saints Everlasting Rest (new ed.) ii. vii. §3 Sauls Melancholy Devil would be gone, when David played on the Harp.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > anger > irascibility > [adjective] > irascible (of person)
hotOE
wooda1250
hastivec1300
irous1303
hastya1350
angrya1387
melancholiousa1393
quicka1400
irefulc1400
melancholyc1450
turnec1480
iracundiousa1492
passionatea1500
fumish1523
irascible1530
wrothful1535
fierya1540
warm1547
choleric1556
hot at hand1558
waspish1566
incensive1570
bilious1571
splenative1593
hot-livered1599
short1599
spitfire1600
warm-tempered1605
temperless1614
sulphurous1616
angryable1662
huffy1680
hastish1749
peppery1778
quick-tempered1792
inflammable1800
hair-triggered1806
gingery1807
spunky1809
iracund1821
irascid1823
wrathy1828
frenzy1859
gunpowdery1868
gunpowderous1870
tempersome1875
exacerbescent1889
tempery1905
lightningy1906
temperish1925
short-fused1979
the mind > emotion > anger > irascibility > ill humour > [adjective]
moodyc1300
distemprec1374
melancholiana1393
solein1399
darkc1440
gloomingc1440
girning1447
melancholyc1450
tetrical1528
tetric1533
distemperate1548
morose1565
sullen1570
stunt1581
humorous1590
gloomya1593
muddy1592
clum1599
dortya1605
humoursome1607
distempereda1616
musty1620
grum1640
agelastic1666
fusty1668
purdy1668
ill-humoured1693
gurly1721
mumpish1721
sunking1724
tetricous1727
sumphish1728
stunkard1737
sulky1744
muggard1746
farouche1765
sombrea1767
glumpy1780
glumpish1800
tiffy1810
splenitive1815
stuffy1825
liverish1828
troglodytish1866
glummy1884
humpy1889
scowly1951
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 2741 (MED) Þare mase þou þe to malicole.
a1500 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Trin. Dublin) 2382 Ȝe make you malicoly hys mageste ayayns.
1579 L. Tomson tr. J. Calvin Serm. Epist. S. Paule to Timothie & Titus 191/1 When wee come to make our prayers to God, wee must not bring thither with vs, our melancholy passions and fretting and fuming.
3.
a. Of a person: gloomy, mournful, or dejected; inclined to sadness or gloominess; gloomily or mournfully introspective. Now also (of a person's mood, feelings, thoughts, etc.): characterized by melancholy or gloominess; sad, gloomy, mournful.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [adjective]
melancholiousa1393
melancholica1398
darkc1440
adustc1460
melancholyc1475
as melancholy as a cat1592
allichollya1616
fuliginous1646
atrabilious1651
atrabilary1676
atrabilarian1678
hipped1712
splenetic1759
atrabiliarious1761
melancholish1775
atrabiliar1833
atrabiliary1839
atrabilarious1882
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [adjective] > expressive of melancholy
melancholiousa1393
melancholyc1475
melancholic1584
c1475 ( Surg. Treat. in MS Wellcome 564 f. 73v (MED) Þou muste charge þi pacient þat he be in reste, and þat he be neiþer malancolie ne pensif.
1592 J. Lyly Midas v. ii. 104 (Bond) Melancholy is the creast of Courtiers armes, and now euerie base companion, beeing in his muble fubles, sayes he is melancholy.
c1598 J. Davies Epigr. No. 47 See yonder melancholy Gentleman, Which hood-wink'd with his hat, alone doth sit.
1601 B. Jonson Every Man in his Humor i. ii. sig. Cv I will be more melancholie, and gentlemanlike then I haue beene, I doe ensure you. View more context for this quotation
1631 B. Jonson Bartholmew Fayre ii. vi. 30 in Wks. II Come, Mistresse Grace, pre'thee be not melancholy for my mis-chance; sorrow wi' not keepe it, Sweetheart.
1744 J. Harris Three Treat. 97 A Funeral will much more affect the same Man if he see it when melancholy, than if he see it when cheerful.
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. at Mania Some are dull and stupid, others very sorrowful and melancholy.
1824 W. Irving Tales of Traveller I. 293 There is no more melancholy creature in existence than a mountebank off duty.
1853 E. C. Gaskell Uncle Peter ii, in Fraser's Mag. Nov. 529/1 But he had sat back in his carriage absorbed in his own melancholy reflections, and quite unheedful of the aspect of the external world.
1884 F. M. Crawford Rom. Singer (ed. 2) I. i. 17 If I am sad and inclined to melancholy humours.
1921 L. Strachey Queen Victoria iii. 59 Stockmar, racked by dyspepsia and haunted by gloomy forebodings, was a constitutionally melancholy man.
1947 J. Van Druten Voice of Turtle ii. ii. 109 Her mood is still melancholy, and she is near tears.
1965 E. Dahlberg Reasons of Heart 60 When man's life is hopeless no bird of prey appears to raven upon his melancholy identity.
1990 R. Baker There's Country in my Cellar vii. xii. 259 I am merely a failed idealist, made unduly melancholy by the passage of too many fruitless years.
b. In extended use, esp. of an animal. Frequently in proverbial phrases, as as melancholy as a cat, etc. Now chiefly in historical context.Certain animals, esp. the hare and the cat, seem to have been associated with melancholy in the Middle Ages, perhaps from their solitary or nocturnal habits.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [adjective]
melancholiousa1393
melancholica1398
darkc1440
adustc1460
melancholyc1475
as melancholy as a cat1592
allichollya1616
fuliginous1646
atrabilious1651
atrabilary1676
atrabilarian1678
hipped1712
splenetic1759
atrabiliarious1761
melancholish1775
atrabiliar1833
atrabiliary1839
atrabilarious1882
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum f. 279 Þough þey [sc. whelps] be malencoly [L. melancolica] bestes of qualite & of complexioun, ȝit þay..beþ glade and mury and pleyeþ moche.]
1592 J. Lyly Midas v. ii. 100 (Bond) I am as melancholy as a cat.
1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares 25 b The mellancholy Owle, (Deaths ordinary messenger).
1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 i. ii. 73 Zbloud I am as melancholy as a gyb Cat, or a lugd beare. View more context for this quotation
1600 W. Shakespeare Much Ado about Nothing ii. i. 201 I found him heere as melancholy as a Lodge in a Warren. View more context for this quotation
1606 Wily Beguilde 73 Old Grandsir Thickskin, you that sit there as melancholy as a mantletree.
1607 T. Dekker & J. Webster North-ward Hoe i. sig. B I'me as melancholy now as Fleet-streete in a long vacation.
1612 M. Drayton Poly-olbion ii. 28 The melancholie Hare.
1727 J. Gay New Song Similes in J. Swift et al. Misc.: Last Vol. 208 I melancholy, as a cat, Am kept awake to weep.
1787 T. Best Conc. Treat. Angling i. v. 32 He is a solitary, melancholy, and bold fish, always being by himself.
1843 Subterranean 4 Nov. 133/2 One of the Literary shysters..gravely informs the public that on a certain day he sat ‘in his sanctum, melancholy as a monkey in consumption’.
1881 A. Trollope Ayala's Angel III. xliv. 6 But Tom walked forth apparently as sober as a judge, and as melancholy as a hangman.
1992 P. O'Brian Truelove vii. 194 I was growing as melancholy as a gib cat.
c. Pensive, thoughtful, meditative.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [adjective] > pensive
thoughtfulc1300
pensivea1393
pensya1450
thoughtya1450
pensiful?c1450
pensative1574
melancholy1600
pensived1609
penseroso1813
penserose1831
penseful1865
1600 T. Dekker Shomakers Holiday i. sig. B3v Hodge. Why then you were as good be a corporall, as a colonel... Eyre. Wel said melancholy Hodge.
1642 Sir T. Browne Religio Medici (new ed.) 12 I found therein no malice, and a ready weight to sway me from the other extreame of despaire, wherunto melancholy and contemplative natures are too easily disposed.
1645 J. Milton Il Penseroso in Poems 39 Sweet Bird that shunn'st the noise of folly, Most musicall, most melancholy!
1748 J. Thomson Castle of Indolence i. xl A certain music, never known before, Here soothed the pensive, melancholy mind.
1792 S. Rogers Pleasures Mem. ii. 190 The tender images we love to trace Steal from each year a melancholy grace.
1861 C. Dickens Great Expectations I. xi. 185 I shall think of it with a melancholy satisfaction when I wake up in the night.
1881 H. James Washington Square xxx. 228 ‘I see your side perfectly, but I also’—and she smiled with a melancholy suggestiveness—‘I also see the situation as a whole!’
1915 A. Conan Doyle Valley of Fear i. iv. 62 The village sergeant, a tall, formal, melancholy man, still held his vigil in the room of fate.
1994 New Scientist 24 Dec. 36/1 The poet's intermittent moods of melancholy affection which Laura cannot share but to which she responds either with sympathy or a gentle irony.
4. † b. Favourable to the pensive mood; conducive to reflection. Obsolete.
a. Of an object, place, sound, etc.: characterized by, suggestive of, or conducive to sadness; depressing, dismal; sorrowful. Of music, words, a gesture or expression, etc.: expressive of sadness or sorrow; sorrowful, poignant; bittersweet.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [adjective] > of things or looks
melancholy1599
drumly1708
1599 W. Shakespeare Romeo & Juliet iv. iv. 113 Melancholy bells. View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) ii. vii. 111 Vnder the shade of melancholly boughes. View more context for this quotation
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. i. 43 Padua is the most melancholy City of Europe.
1721 J. Dryden tr. Georgics iv, in Virgil's Wks. (ed. 5) I. 334 Melancholy Musick fills the Plains.
1728 J. Thomson Spring 31 The Wood-Dove breathes A melancholy Murmur thro' the whole.
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe II. xiv. 269 ‘Any, the worst of these harbourages,’ said Rebecca, with a melancholy smile, ‘would unquestionably be more fitting for your residence.’
1835 E. Bulwer-Lytton Rienzi I. i. i. 11 The thick and melancholy foliage.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xxvii. 198 The fountain made a melancholy gurgle.
1913 W. Cather O Pioneers! ii. vii. 144 He had a way of drawing out his cambric handkerchief slowly, by one corner, from his breast-pocket, that was melancholy and romantic in the extreme.
1933 J. Galsworthy One More River vi. 48 He walked threading his way through the streams of traffic, with the melancholy howling of street-singers in his ear.
1980 A. Thwaite Victorian Voices 20 Onset of autumn—melancholy time in Cambridge.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [adjective] > pensive > suggestive of or favourable to pensiveness
pensive1548
melancholy1659
1659 A. Wood Life & Times (1891) I. 270 To refresh his mind with a melancholy walke.
c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1641 (1955) II. 71 So naturally it [sc. the park] is furnish'd with whatever may render it agreable, melancholy & Country-like.
c1660 J. Evelyn Diary anno 1644 (1955) II. 159 The house is modernly built, & seemes to be the seate of some Gentleman; being in a very pleasent place though somewhat melancholy.
1821 C. Lamb in London Mag. Apr. 361/1 We will drink no wise, melancholy, politic port on this day.
5. Of a fact, event, situation, etc.: saddening, lamentable, deplorable.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > sorrow or grief > [adjective] > causing sorrow or grief
sorelyc888
sorrowfulOE
sorryOE
yomerlyOE
rueful?c1225
grievous1297
heavyc1374
sada1375
deefulc1380
grievable1390
grieffula1400
grievingc1450
trist?c1450
tristfula1492
dolorousa1500
doly?1553
mournful?1570
griefsome1635
tristifical1656
melancholy1710
1710 R. Wodrow Analecta (1842) I. 308 It was one of the melancholyest sights to any that have any sense of our antient Nobility, to see them going throu for votes, and making partys.
1763 C. Johnstone Reverie (new ed.) II. 44 You are affected with this melancholy detail.
1768 L. Sterne Sentimental Journey I. 53 Melancholy! to see such sprightliness the prey of sorrow.
1807 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 17 247 The most serious and melancholy effect ensued.
1832 Rep. Comm. Bill to regulate Labour of Children 413 in Parl. Papers 1831–2 (H.C. 706 ) XV. 1 Will you state how you account for the melancholy result which you attribute to the factory system as at present conducted?
1886 Q. Jrnl. Microsc. Sci. 28 291 A melancholy instance of the extent to which Dr. P. acts upon the principle of bending facts to theory.
1967 M. Meyer Ibsen i. vi. 179 The wedding was celebrated..under melancholy circumstances, for only seven days previously her father, the Dean, had died.
1988 R. Christiansen Romantic Affinities i. 6 He returned to Paris, opting for the literary life and its eternal melancholy twin, poverty.
B. n.2
With the. Sad or mournful people as a class. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > [noun] > one affected by melancholy
melancholicc1460
melancholist1600
melancholian1632
melancholy1654
1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία 483 It unsaddens the melancholy, quickens the dull, awaketh the drowsie.
1711 J. Swift Argument abolishing Christianity in Misc. Prose & Verse 173 Convents..which are so many Retreats for the Speculative, the Melancholy, the Proud, the Silent, the Politick and the Morose.
1759 S. Johnson Prince of Abissinia II. xlv. 142 For this reason the superstitious are often melancholy, and the melancholy almost always superstitious.
Compounds
C1.
a.
melancholy-faced adj.
ΚΠ
1877 W. Black Green Pastures & Piccadilly v, in Examiner 3 Feb. 141/1 He was a melancholy-faced man.
1995 N.Y. Beacon (Electronic ed.) 18 Oct. pg The look was ultra-young at Oliver, Valentino's second line, named after his melancholy-faced pug dog.
melancholy-looking adj.
ΚΠ
1802 M. Edgeworth Let. 19 Oct. in M. Edgeworth in France & Switzerland (1979) 14 A melancholy looking man of 60 years of age.
1944 ‘F. O'Connor’ Crab Apple Jelly 83 A man with a smooth oval pate and bleared, melancholy-looking, unblinking eyes.
1999 Internat. Herald Tribune (Electronic ed.) 17 Feb. He cast the melancholy looking Susumu Terashima.
melancholy-voiced adj.
ΚΠ
1912 W. Owen Let. 23 June (1967) 142 The firm Superintendent of their Sunday School, the silence-loving, and the melancholy-voiced,..capered about the lawn among them, a very Pan amid the nymphs.
b. † melancholy hat n. Obsolete (probably) a mourning hat (but cf. quot. c1598 at sense A. 3a).Apparently an isolated use.
ΚΠ
1614 J. Cooke Greenes Tu Quoque B 1 b Go to the next Haberdashers & bid him send me a new melancholy hat.
C2. In the names of plants.† melancholy tree n. Obsolete the night jasmine, Nyctanthes arbor-tristis; cf. sorrowful tree n. at sorrowful adj., n., and adv. Compounds.
melancholy gentleman n. a European rocket (plant), Hesperis tristis, sometimes grown for its sombrely coloured flowers.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > particular flower or plant esteemed for flower > [noun] > cruciferous flowers > white or purple flowers
garden rocket1548
queen's gillyflower1573
cuckoo-flower1578
damask violet1578
dame's-violet1578
rogue's gilliflower1578
wild passerage1578
lady's smock1593
Canterbury bells1597
close-sciences1597
sea stock-gillyflower1597
cardamine1609
melancholic gentleman1629
melancholy gentleman1629
Whitsun gilliflower1656
Hesperis1666
rocket1731
queen's violet1733
queen's July-flower1760
Virginian stock1760
spinka1774
damewort1776
virgin-stock1786
pink1818
sea-stock1849
clown's mustard1861
rock beauty1870
milksile-
1629 J. Parkinson Paradisi in Sole Table The Melancholy Gentleman.
1902 T. W. Sanders Encycl. Gardening (ed. 5) Melancholy-gentleman (Hesperis tristis).
1972 J. Metcalf Going down Slow v. 102 What a garden there was at the back of this glorious inn... There was Herb of Grace and Rosemary,..Blue Moonwort and the Melancholy Gentleman, [etc.].
melancholy plume thistle n. = melancholy thistle n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Compositae (composite plants) > [noun] > thistles
thistlec725
carduea1398
wolf's-thistlea1400
cardoona1425
wolf-thistle1526
cotton-thistle1548
gum-thistle1548
oat thistle1548
black chameleon1551
ixia1551
Saint Mary thistle1552
milk thistle1562
cow-thistle1565
bedeguar1578
carline1578
silver thistle1578
white chameleon1578
globe thistle1582
ball thistle1597
down thistle1597
friar's crown1597
lady's thistle1597
gummy thistle1598
man's blood1601
musk thistle1633
melancholy thistle1653
Scotch thistle1660
boar-thistle1714
spear- thistle1753
gentle thistle1760
woolly thistle1760
wool-thistle1769
bur-thistlea1796
Canada thistle1796
pine thistle1807
plume thistle1814
melancholy plume thistle1825
woolly-headed thistle1843
dog thistle1845
dwarf thistle1846
welted thistle1846
pixie glove1858
Mexican thistle1866
Syrian thistle1866
bull thistle1878
fish belly1878
fish-bone-thistle1882
green thistle1882
herringbone thistle1884
Californian thistle1891
winged thistle1915
fish-thistles-
1825 J. E. Smith Eng. Flora III. 392 C[nicus] heterophyllus. Melancholy Plume-thistle.
1830 W. J. Hooker Brit. Flora 352 C[nicus] heterophýllus, Willd. (melancholy Plume-thistle)... Moist mountain pastures in the north, frequent.
1861 A. Pratt Flowering Plants & Ferns Great Brit. III. 237 Cnicus heterophyllus (Melancholy Plume Thistle).
melancholy thistle n. a Eurasian thistle of upland meadows, Cirsium heterophyllum, with unarmed stems and usually solitary heads, formerly a reputed cure for melancholy.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > Compositae (composite plants) > [noun] > thistles
thistlec725
carduea1398
wolf's-thistlea1400
cardoona1425
wolf-thistle1526
cotton-thistle1548
gum-thistle1548
oat thistle1548
black chameleon1551
ixia1551
Saint Mary thistle1552
milk thistle1562
cow-thistle1565
bedeguar1578
carline1578
silver thistle1578
white chameleon1578
globe thistle1582
ball thistle1597
down thistle1597
friar's crown1597
lady's thistle1597
gummy thistle1598
man's blood1601
musk thistle1633
melancholy thistle1653
Scotch thistle1660
boar-thistle1714
spear- thistle1753
gentle thistle1760
woolly thistle1760
wool-thistle1769
bur-thistlea1796
Canada thistle1796
pine thistle1807
plume thistle1814
melancholy plume thistle1825
woolly-headed thistle1843
dog thistle1845
dwarf thistle1846
welted thistle1846
pixie glove1858
Mexican thistle1866
Syrian thistle1866
bull thistle1878
fish belly1878
fish-bone-thistle1882
green thistle1882
herringbone thistle1884
Californian thistle1891
winged thistle1915
fish-thistles-
1653 N. Culpeper Eng. Physitian Enlarged 254 The Melancholly Thistle... 'Tis the best Remedy against al Melancholly Diseases that grows.
1767 J. Robertson Jrnl. June–July in D. M. Henderson & J. H. Dickson Naturalist in Highlands (1994) ii. 45 I found great quantities of..Carduus helenioides, Melancholy Thistle.
1855 Ladies' Repository Nov. 676/2 The hypochondriac in those days found a charm in the root of the melancholy thistle.
1992 A. D. Leather Walker's Guide to Swaledale 27 One flower which is truly characteristic of Swaledale is the melancholy thistle... This northern plant has long leaves, white on the back, with no prickles, and was first discovered near Ingleborough.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular cultivated or ornamental plants > cultivated or ornamental trees and shrubs > [noun] > jasmine
jasmine1548
Indian mourner1597
jesse1597
makebate1597
sad tree1597
shrub trefoil1597
sorrowful tree1597
double pipe-tree1629
jessamy1631
mogra1662
melancholy tree1760
night jasmine1866
sampaguita1902
pikake1933
1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 319 Melancholy-tree, Nyctanthes.
Derivatives
ˈmelancholyish adj. somewhat melancholy.
ΚΠ
1837 E. Bulwer-Lytton Let. 30 Sept. in A. W. Fonblanque Life & Labours (1874) 53 I had a melancholyish letter from Lady Blessington.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
† melancholyv.
Obsolete.
1. transitive. To make melancholy.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > melancholy > make melancholy [verb (transitive)]
melancholya1492
melancholize1598
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [verb (transitive)] > make melancholy
melancholya1492
a1492 W. Caxton tr. Vitas Patrum (1495) ii. f. cclxxxxv/2–f. cclxxxxi/1 The pleasyr of god is that, of whiche thou melancolyest thy selfe to be soo doon.
?1541 R. Copland Maner to Examyne Lazares in Guy de Chauliac's Questyonary Cyrurgyens sig. Qiijv It brenneth the blode & melancolyeth it.
1567 T. Paynell tr. Amadis de Gaula 78 Ye melancholy your selfe..for the mariage that I have found out for you.
a1657 R. Loveday Lett. (1663) 165 I am extremely melancholy'd at your dilated resolutions of seeing London.
1801 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1956) II. 751 What you say of Davy, impressed me, melancholied me.
1980 Jrnl. Philos. 77 299 There is no transitive ‘melancholied’ that would give ‘John melancholied Bill’ as a paraphrase of ‘John caused Bill to become melancholy’.]
2. intransitive. Scottish. To grieve; to feel sad or resentful. rare.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > sorrow or grief > feel sorrow or grief [verb (intransitive)]
sorroweOE
sorryeOE
careOE
heavyOE
mournOE
rueOE
murkenOE
dole13..
likec1330
wailc1374
ensorrowc1384
gloppen?a1400
sytea1400
teena1400
grievec1400
angera1425
erme1481
yearna1500
aggrieve1559
discomfort?a1560
melancholyc1580
to eat one's (own) heart1590
repent1590
passion1598
sigh1642
c1580 ( tr. Bk. Alexander (1927) III. ii. 5081 Porrus ȝeid malancoliand.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
† melancholyadv.
Obsolete.
In a melancholic or resentful manner.
ΚΠ
?c1450 Life St. Cuthbert (1891) 2087 (MED) Disordeny monkes..Of his spekyng were noȝt payed, Bot oft tymes schortely him gaynsayed And malancoly saied nay.
1596 T. Lodge Margarite of Amer. sig. I3 Calling for pen and inke, he wrote this, thrusting it in Dianaes bosome, walked melancholy into a faire garden..where he wept so bitterly, that it was supposed his heart would burst.
?c1615 Chron. Kings of Scotl. (1830) 154 Quhairatt the freindis of the Erlle of Mwrray wes malancoly discontent.
1686 T. D'Urfey Banditti iii. i. 21 (stage direct.) Fr[isco] sighs, and walks melancholy about.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2001; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1a1375adj.n.2a1393
v.a1492adv.?c1450