atrabilious
or at·ra·bil·iar
[a-truh-bil-yuh s]
- gloomy; morose; melancholy; morbid.
- irritable; bad-tempered; splenetic.
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Origin of atrabilious
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
gloomy, dispirited, morose, despondent, crestfallen, glum, discouraged, disheartened, drooping, down, black, low, clouded, hurting, sagging, dampened, dashed, dragged, cantankerous, surlyExamples from the Web for atrabilious
Historical Examples
After his conversion he made amends, though he was always the atrabilious faultfinder.
UnicornsJames Huneker
Much dining-out doth breed dyspepsia, and atrabilious views are apt to be a leetle lop-sided.
I hold them to be a race of pessimists, recruited amongst beggarly philosophers and knavish, atrabilious theologians.
The Memoires of Casanova, CompleteJacques Casanova de Seingalt
The melancholy or atrabilious temperament is of a different character.
Curiosities of Medical ExperienceJ. G. (John Gideon) Millingen
It was his wife, Petronille, still young and passing handsome, but of atrabilious and harsh mien.
atrabilious
atrabiliar
- rare irritable
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin ātra bīlis black bile, from āter black + bīlis bile 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for atrabilious
adj.
1650s, from Latin atra bilis, translating Greek melankholia "black bile" (see melancholy; also cf. bile). Atra is fem. of ater "black, dark, gloomy," perhaps related to root of atrocity. Related: Atrabiliousness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper