different between melancholy vs wretched
melancholy
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)
- (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.
- , Bk.I, New York 2001, p.148:
- 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.
- 1593, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, V. i. 34:
Translations
Adjective
melancholy (comparative more melancholy, superlative most melancholy)
- (literary) Affected with great sadness or depression.
Synonyms
- (thoughtful sadness): melancholic
- See also Thesaurus:sad
Translations
Related terms
- melancholic
- sadness
- melancholia
melancholy From the web:
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- what melancholy vegetable are you
- what's melancholy personality
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wretched
English
Etymology 1
From Middle English wrecched, equivalent to wretch +? -ed.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /???t??d/
Adjective
wretched (comparative wretcheder or more wretched, superlative wretchedest or most wretched)
- Very miserable; feeling deep affliction or distress.
- I felt wretched after my wife died.
- Worthless; paltry; very poor or mean; miserable.
- The street was full of wretched beggars dressed in rags.
- (obsolete) Hatefully contemptible; despicable; wicked.
- (informal) Used to express dislike of or annoyance towards the mentioned thing.
- Will you please stop playing that wretched trombone!
Usage notes
- Nouns to which "wretched" is often applied: woman, state, life, condition, creature, man, excess, person, place, world, being, situation, weather, slave, animal, city, village, health, house, town.
Synonyms
- (very miserable): See Thesaurus:sad or Thesaurus:lamentable
- (worthless): See Thesaurus:insignificant
- (hatefully contemptible): See Thesaurus:despicable
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Further reading
- wretched in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- wretched in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “wretched”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /??t?t/
- Rhymes: -?t?t
Verb
wretched
- Misspelling of retched.
wretched From the web:
- what wretched means
- what wretched man i am
- what's wretched
- what wretched weather
- wretchedness meaning
- what wretched means in spanish
- what wretched sentence
- what's wretched in french
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