different between gloom vs dejection

English

Etymology

From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English gl?m (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *gl?m, from Proto-Germanic *gl?maz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *??ley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?lu?m/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?lum/
• Rhymes: -u?m

Noun

gloom (usually uncountable, plural glooms)

1. Darkness, dimness, or obscurity.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet:

     Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom, I could make out nothing to show me where to work.

2. A depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.
3. Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
   • 1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents:

     A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.

4. A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

Derived terms

• doom and gloom
• gloomies
• gloomily
• gloomy

Related terms

• gloam

Translations

Verb

gloom (third-person singular simple present glooms, present participle glooming, simple past and past participle gloomed)

1. (intransitive) To be dark or gloomy.
   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     The black gibbet glooms beside the way.

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 189:

     Around all the dark forest gloomed.

2. (intransitive) To look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
   • a. 1930, D. H. Lawrence, The Lovely Lady

     Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.
3. (transitive) To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.

   • A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air.

4. (transitive) To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien

     Such a mood as that which lately gloomed your fancy.

   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     What sorrows gloomed that parting day.

5. To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.

English

Etymology

From Old French dejection, from Latin dejectio (“a casting down”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??d??k??n/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d??d??k??n/
• Rhymes: -?k??n

Noun

dejection (countable and uncountable, plural dejections)

1. A state of melancholy or depression; low spirits, the blues.
2. The act of humbling or abasing oneself.
   • Bishop Pearson

     Adoration implies submission and dejection.

3. A low condition; weakness; inability.
   • Arbuthnot

     a dejection of appetite

4. (medicine, archaic) Defecation or feces.

Synonyms

• (melancholy, depression, low spirits): despondency, downheartedness, crestfallenness
• (defecation or feces): excrement, bowel movement

Translations