Meaning

noun a feeling of thoughtful sadness

noun a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed

noun a humor that was once believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen and to cause sadness and melancholy

originFrom Middle English malencolie, from Old French melancolie, from Ancient Greek μελαγχολία (melankholía, “atrabiliousness”) (from μέλας (mélas), μελαν- (melan-, “black, dark, murky”) + χολή (kholḗ, “bile”)), referring to the humour which ancient Hippocratic and later Galenic medicine associated with sadness and despondency. Compare the Latin ātra bīlis (“black bile”). The adjectival use is a…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0