melancholiac

[mel-uhn-koh-lee-ak]

adjective

1. affected with melancholia.

noun

1. a person who is affected with melancholia.

Word History and Origins

Origin of melancholiac¹

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

Example Sentences

As he said to Thorsen: “My analyst told me that melancholiacs will usually be more level-headed than ordinary people in a disastrous situation, because they can say, ‘What did I tell you?’”…

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I dare say I am—but I do object to being made out a hopeless melancholiac!

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He remembered one of those men in the islands who had become a melancholiac.

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A man subjected long to that soul-cramping stress, with no outlet or abatement, would have become a melancholiac.

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I would here observe that the figure of the maniac is superior to that of the melancholiac, whose expression is rather that of dementia than melancholia.

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