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Webster 1913 Edition

Melancholy

Mel′an-chol-y

,
Noun.
[OE.
melancolie
, F.
mélancolie
, L.
melancholia
, fr. Gr. [GREEK];
μέλας
,
μέλανος
, black + [GREEK] gall, bile. See
Malice
, and 1st
Gall
.]
1.
Depression of spirits; a gloomy state continuing a considerable time; deep dejection; gloominess.
Shak.
2.
Great and continued depression of spirits, amounting to mental unsoundness; melancholia.
3.
Pensive maditation; serious thoughtfulness.
[Obs.]
“Hail, divinest Melancholy !”
Milton.
4.
Ill nature.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Mel′an-chol-y

,
Adj.
1.
Depressed in spirits; dejected; gloomy dismal.
Shak.
2.
Producing great evil and grief; causing dejection; calamitous; afflictive;
as, a
melancholy
event
.
3.
Somewhat deranged in mind; having the jugment impaired.
[Obs.]
Bp. Reynolds.
4.
Favorable to meditation; somber.
A pretty,
melancholy
seat, well wooded and watered.
Evelin.
Syn. – Gloomy; sad; dispirited; low-spirited; downhearted; unhappy; hypochondriac; disconsolate; heavy, doleful; dismal; calamitous; afflictive.

Webster 1828 Edition

Melancholy

MEL'ANCHOLY

,
Noun.
[Gr. black, and bile; L. melancholia.]
1.
A gloomy state of mind, often a gloomy state that is of some continuance, or habitual; depression of spirits induced by grief; dejection of spirits. This was formerly supposed to proceed from a redundance of black bile. Melancholy, when extreme and of long continuance, is a disease, sometimes accompanied with partial insanity. Cullen defines it, partial insanity without dyspepsy.
In nosology, mental-alienation restrained to a single object or train of ideas, in distinction from mania, in which the alienation is general.
Moon-struck madness, moping melancholy.

MEL'ANCHOLY

,
Adj.
Gloomy; depressed in spirits; dejected; applied to persons. Overwhelming grief has made me melancholy.
1.
Dismal; gloomy; habitually dejected; as a melancholy temper.
2.
Calamitous; afflictive; that may or does produce great evil and grief; as a melancholy event. The melancholy fate of the Albion! The melancholy destruction of Scio and of Missolonghi!

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