Etymologically
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μελαγχολία

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (5th-century BC Attic): /me.laŋ.kʰo.lí.aː/[1]
  • IPA (4th-century AD Koine): /me.laŋ.xoˈli.a/[1]
  • IPA (10th-century Byzantine): /me.laŋ.xoˈli.a/[1]

Forms

μελαγχολῐ́ᾱ (melankholíā) f (genitive μελαγχολῐ́ᾱς); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is derived from μελάγχολος (melánkholos, “having black bile”) with the suffix -ία (-ía).[1] The adjective is formed from μέλας (mélas, “black”) and χολή (kholḗ, “bile”): an excess of black bile.[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Hippocratic treatise Airs, Waters, Places uses it, in the plural, for melancholic disorders.[3]

Semantic evolution

Ancient medicine attributed low spirits and madness to an excess of black bile, one of the four humours, so the word meant both the disease and the state of mind.[2][4] Timaeus of Locri, Philodemus and the astrological poet Manetho use it, and Aretaeus has the singular for the disease.[3] Plutarch uses it for the madness or depression caused by black bile.[4]

Medieval Greek used it for sadness and distress.[5] Late Latin borrowed it as melancholia, and English melancholy came from Old French about 1300, first as a mental disorder.[2] Modern Greek μελαγχολία (melancholía) is sadness and gloom, and in psychiatry a pathological depression.[6]

Timeline

  • 5th century BC – The Hippocratic writings use it for melancholic disorders.[3]
  • 1st century BC – Philodemus uses it.[3]
  • 1st–2nd century AD – Plutarch uses it for madness or depression.[4]
  • 12th–17th century – Vernacular Greek uses it for sadness.[5]
  • c. 1300 – English borrows melancholy through French.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (medicine) A disorder caused by an excess of black bile; melancholy.[3][4]
  2. Madness; depression.[4]
  3. (medieval) Sadness, distress.[5]
  • μέλας (mélas)
  • χολή (kholḗ)
  • Latin melancholia
  • English melancholy

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  5. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
  6. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki