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melancholiac

[ mel-uh n-koh-lee-ak ]

/ ˌmɛl ənˈkoʊ liˌæk /

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adjective

affected with melancholia.

noun

a person who is affected with melancholia.

Nearby words

Origin of melancholiac

First recorded in 1860–65; melancholi(a) + -ac

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for melancholiac

But, Carley, you are not a sentimentalist, or a melancholiac.
The Call of the Canyon|Zane Grey
A saint in ecstasy is as motionless and irresponsive and one-idea'd as a melancholiac.
A Book of Exposition|Homer Heath Nugent
A man subjected long to that soul-cramping stress, with no outlet or abatement, would have become a melancholiac.
The Tempering|Charles Neville Buck
His attitude toward them is that of the paranoiac, vindictive, rather than that of the melancholiac, humiliated.
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 56, March 1900|Various

He remembered one of those men in the islands who had become a melancholiac.
The Law of Hemlock Mountain|Hugh Lundsford

Word Origin and History for melancholiac

melancholiac

n.

1863, from melancholy. Earlier in same sense was melancholian (mid-14c.).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper