different between atrabilious vs atrabilarian

English

Etymology

From Latin ?tra b?lis (“black bile”) (?ter (“dark, black”) + b?lis (“bile”)) +? -ous (“full of”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?æ.t???b?.li.?s/
• Hyphenation: atra?bili?ous

Adjective

atrabilious (comparative more atrabilious, superlative most atrabilious)

1. (medicine, obsolete) Having an excess of black bile.
   • 1645, Arthur Wilson, quoted in Antonia Fraser, The Weaker Vessel: Woman's Lot in Seventeenth-century England, London: George Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd., 1984, ISBN 978-0-297-78381-7:

     [I] could see nothing in the evidence which did persuade me to think them other than poor, melancholy, envious, mischievous, ill-disposed, ill-dieted, atrabilious constitutions.
2. Characterized by melancholy.

   Do we listen to pop music because of atrabiliousness, or are we atrabilious because we listen to pop music? (High Fidelity magazine paraphrase)
3. Ill-natured; malevolent; cantankerous.

Synonyms

• (characterized by melancholy): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable
• (ill-natured): See Thesaurus:irritable

Related terms

• atrabilarious
• atrabiliously
• atrabiliousness

English

Etymology

From Latin ?tra b?lis (“black bile”).

Adjective

atrabilarian (comparative more atrabilarian, superlative most atrabilarian)

1. Characterized by melancholy or glum; atrabilarious; atrabilious.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Arbuthnot to this entry?)

   • 1924, Ford Madox Ford, Some Do Not, volume 1 of Parade's End

     He stopped, he directed upon her his atrabilarian eyes, biting his umbrella handle; he was extremely nervous.

Related terms

• atrabilious