Friday, July 13, 2012

atrabilious



atrabilious [ˌætrəˈbɪlyəs] a.

1.) Affected by black bile or ‘choler adust’; melancholy, hypochondriac; splenetic, acrimonious (O.E.D. 2nd Ed.).

Etymology: From Latin atra bilis, black bile (translation of Greek melankholia): atra, black; + bilis, bile.

"She liked London constantly, and stood in defence of it against me and my atrabilious censures of it, never had for herself the least wish to quit it again, though I was often talking of that, and her practice would have been loyal compliance for my behoof" (Reminiscences, Thomas Carlyle, 1881).

(Mr and Mrs Andrews, Thomas Gainsborough, ~1750)

8 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Great word! Would work well in an insult, like "go to hell, you atrabilious bastard!" Yeah, I like it!

D4 said...

Really needed that paragraph to help me 'get' its use this time.

MRanthrope said...

this describes my Friday the 13th perfectly =/

Meri said...

yech! not a very pleasant word!

Z said...

I really miss you buddy! :)

Bibi said...

re your comment: dirty.

Jenny Woolf said...

Lovely word. Atrabilous. i might incorporate that into my everyday vocabulary, though will look up a few more contexts first.
By the way the little player which shows how the word sounds, is missing. I wonder if that is Blogger's fault or whether you have stopped giving this information.

Jenny Woolf said...

I mean "atrabilious" :)

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