melancholy: [14] Etymologically, melancholy means ‘black gall’. The word comes via Old French melancolie and late Latin melancholia from Greek melagkholíā, a compound formed from mélās ‘black’ (source also of English melanin [19] and melanoma [19]) and kholé ‘bile’ (a relative of English gall). This ‘black bile’ was one of the four bodily substances or ‘humours’ whose relative preponderance, according to medieval medical theory, determined a person’s physical and mental state. Excess of black bile was thought to cause depression – hence the modern meaning of melancholy. => gall, melanoma
melancholy (n.)
c. 1300, "condition characterized by sullenness, gloom, irritability," from Old French melancolie "black bile, ill disposition, anger, annoyance" (13c.), from Late Latin melancholia, from Greek melankholia "sadness," literally (excess of) "black bile," from melas (genitive melanos) "black" (see melanin) + khole "bile" (see Chloe). Medieval physiology attributed depression to excess of "black bile," a secretion of the spleen and one of the body's four "humors."
The Latin word also is the source of Spanish melancolia, Italian melancolia, German Melancholie, Danish melankoli, etc. Old French variant malencolie (also in Middle English) is by false association with mal "sickness."
melancholy (adj.)
late 14c., "with or caused by black bile; sullen, gloomy, sad," from melancholy (n.); sense of "deplorable" (of a fact or state of things) is from 1710.
双语例句
1. He fixed me with those luminous, empty eyes and his melancholy smile.
他笑容忧郁地凝视着我，闪亮的眼睛里空无一物。
来自柯林斯例句
2. The general watched the process with an air of melancholy.
将军神情忧郁地望着队列经过。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Melancholy and mistrust of men hold her back.
忧郁的性格和对男人的不信任使她裹足不前。
来自柯林斯例句
4. A mood of melancholy descended on us.
一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
来自《权威词典》
5. All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.
