different between dismayed vs melancholy

English

Verb

dismayed

1. simple past tense and past participle of dismay

Adjective

dismayed (comparative more dismayed, superlative most dismayed)

1. Having the emotion of dismay.

   He was dismayed to find his car had gone.

Derived terms

• dismayedness
• undismayed

Translations

English

Alternative forms

• melancholly, melancholie, melancholious (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English malencolie, from Old French melancolie, from Ancient Greek ?????????? (melankholía, “atrabiliousness”), from ????? (mélas), ?????- (melan-, “black, dark, murky”) + ???? (khol?, “bile”). Compare the Latin ?tra b?lis (“black bile”). The adjectival use is a Middle English innovation, perhaps influenced by the suffixes -y, -ly.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?mel?nk?li/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?m?l.?n?k?l.i/

Noun

melancholy (countable and uncountable, plural melancholies)

1. (historical) Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
   • , Bk.I, New York 2001, p.148:

     Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and sour, […] is a bridle to the other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in the blood, and nourishing the bones.

2. Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
   • 1593, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, V. i. 34:

     My mind was troubled with deep melancholy.

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act IV, Scene 1,^[1]

     I have neither the scholar’s melancholy, which is emulation; nor the musician’s, which is fantastical; nor the courtier’s, which is proud; nor the soldier’s, which is ambitious; nor the lawyer’s, which is politic; nor the lady’s, which is nice; nor the lover’s, which is all these; but it is a melancholy of mine own, compounded of many simples, extracted from many objects, and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my travels; in which my often rumination wraps me in a most humorous sadness.

Translations

Adjective

melancholy (comparative more melancholy, superlative most melancholy)

1. (literary) Affected with great sadness or depression.

Synonyms

• (thoughtful sadness): melancholic
• See also Thesaurus:sad

Translations

Related terms

• melancholic
• sadness
• melancholia