cholera
/ˈkɒlərə
/noun [mass noun]
An infectious and often fatal bacterial disease of the small intestine, typically contracted from infected water supplies and causing severe vomiting and diarrhoea.
- The disease is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. See vibrio.
- Vibrio vulnificus is a bacterium in the same family as those that cause cholera.
- Pasteur went on to discover vaccinations for chicken pox, cholera, diphtheria, anthrax and rabies.
Origin
Late Middle English (originally denoting bile and later applied to various ailments involving vomiting and diarrhoea): from Latin (see choler). The current sense dates from the early 19th century.
melancholy from Middle English:
According to the medieval theory of the four humours (see humour), melancholy or black bile caused depression. The word goes back to Greek melankholia, from melas ‘black’ (source of mid 19th-century melanin and melanoma) and kholē ‘bile’ (source of cholera (Late Middle English), choleric (Middle English), and cholesterol (late 19th century)). Today it tends to refer to a pensive or moody sadness rather than deep depression.