different between malevolent vs atrabilious

English

Etymology

From Middle English *malevolent (suggested by Middle English malevolence), from Old French malivolent and Latin malevolentem, from male (“badly, wrongly”) + volens (“willing, wishing”), from velle (“to wish”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m??l?v?l?nt/

Adjective

malevolent (comparative more malevolent, superlative most malevolent)

1. Having or displaying ill will; wishing harm on others.
2. Having an evil or harmful influence.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:evil

Antonyms

• benevolent

Derived terms

• malevolently

Related terms

• malevolence

Translations

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