Word of the Day

Monday, March 06, 2000

atrabilious

\at-ruh-BIL-yuhs\ , adjective;

Melancholic; gloomy.

Irritable; ill-natured; peevish.

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Quotes:

Captain Aubrey's steward [was] an ill-faced, ill-tempered, meagre, atrabilious, shrewish man who kept his officer's uniform, equipment and silver in a state of exact, old-maidish order come wind or high water.

-- Patrick O'Brian, The Hundred Days

So here we have him, as entertainingly atrabilious as ever he was . . . mocking the Fords, the Hitlers, the Mussolinis, the Sir Alfred Monds, the Owen D. Youngs -- all who would go back on laissez-faire and on toward the servile state.

-- John Chamberlain, "Future Shock", New York Times, October 6, 1996

Origin:

Atrabilious is from Latin atra bilis, "black" (atra) "bile" (bilis). It is a translation of Greek melankholia, from melas, melan-, "black" + khole, "bile." According to ancient and medieval physiology, an excess of black bile in the system was supposed to cause melancholy.