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
Examples 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