different between lamenting vs melancholy

English

Verb

lamenting

1. present participle of lament

Noun

lamenting (plural lamentings)

1. Lamentation.
   • 1577, Timothy Kendall (translator), “The song of S. Ierome in the deseit” in Flowers of Epigrammes, London: John Shepperd,^[1]

     If gronyngs greate, get grace at God,

     and loude lamentyngs, loue:

     I hope my piteous pearcyng plaintes,

     shall God to mercie moue.

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, Scene 3,^[2]

     The night has been unruly: where we lay,

     Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,

     Lamentings heard i’ th’ air, strange screams of death […]

   • 1774, Thomas Hull, Henry the Second: or, the Fall of Rosamund, London: John Bell, Act IV, p. 48,^[3]

     Lose not the Moments

     In vain Lamentings o’er Mischances past:

     One Project foil’d, another should be try’d,

Anagrams

• alignment, gintleman, manteling

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