different between melancholy vs piteous

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

English

Etymology

From Middle English pitous, from Old French piteus, pitus.

Pronunciation

Adjective

piteous (comparative more piteous, superlative most piteous)

1. Provoking pity, compassion, or sympathy.

   Synonyms: heartbreaking, heartrending, lamentable, pathetic, pitiful

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act V, Scene 3,^[1]

     […] with his strong arms

     He fastened on my neck, and bellowed out

     As he’d burst heaven; threw him on my father;

     Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him

     That ever ear receiv’d;

   • 1782, Frances Burney, Cecilia, London: T. Payne & Son and T. Cadell, Volume 2, Book 3, Chapter 4, p. 51,^[2]

     […] my strength, madam, is almost all gone away, and when I do any hard work, it’s quite a piteous sight to see me, for I am all in a tremble after it, just as if I had an ague […]

   • 1931, Pearl S. Buck, The Good Earth, New York: Modern Library, 1944, Chapter 11, pp. 80-81,^[3]

     “ […] you go out to beg, first smearing yourself with mud and filth to make yourselves as piteous as you can.”

2. (obsolete) Showing devotion to God.

   Synonyms: devout, pious

   • c. 1390s, John Wycliffe (translator), Wycliffe’s Bible, 2 Peter 2.9,^[4]

     For the Lord kan delyuere piteuouse men fro temptacioun, and kepe wickid men in to the dai of dom to be turmentid;

3. (obsolete) Showing compassion.

   Synonyms: compassionate, tender

   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, Richard II, Act V, Scene 3,^[5]

     Thine eye begins to speak; set thy tongue there;

     Or in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear;

     That hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce,

     Pity may move thee ‘pardon’ to rehearse.

   • 1634, John Milton, Comus, London: Humphrey Robinson, 1637, p. 29,^[6]

     The water Nymphs that in the bottome playd

     Held up their pearled wrists and tooke her in,

     Bearing her straite to aged Nereus hall

     Who piteous of her woes rea[r’]d her lanke head,

     And gave her to his daughters to imbathe

     In nectar’d lavers strewd with asphodil,

   • 1728, Alexander Pope, The Dunciad, London: A. Dodd, Book 2, p. 21,^[7]

     With that the Goddess (piteous of his case,

     Yet smiling at his ruful length of face)

     Gives him a cov’ring,

   • 1783, William Blake, “An Imitation of Spenser” in Poetical Sketches, London: Basil Montagu Pickering, 1868, p. 37,^[8]

     Or have they soft piteous eyes beheld

     The weary wanderer thro’ the desert rove?

     Or does th’ afflicted man thy heavenly bosom move?

4. (obsolete) Of little importance or value.

   Synonyms: miserable, paltry, pathetic, mean, pitiful

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9, lines 1030-1034,^[9]

     […] calling to minde with heed

     Part of our Sentence, that thy Seed shall bruise

     The Serpents head; piteous amends, unless

     Be meant, whom I conjecture, our grand Foe

     Satan,

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, pp. 158-159,^[10]

     […] my Business was now to try if I could not make Jackets out of the great Watch-Coats which I had by me, and with such other Materials as I had, so I set to Work a Taylering, or rather indeed a Botching, for I made most piteous Work of it.

Related terms

• dispiteous
• impiteous
• piteously
• pitiable
• pitiful
• pitisome

Translations

Anagrams

• poustie