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Melancholy vs Bleak - What's the difference?

melancholy | bleak |

As adjectives the difference between melancholy and bleak

is that melancholy is affected with great sadness or depression while bleak is without color; pale; pallid.

As nouns the difference between melancholy and bleak

is that melancholy is black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies while bleak is a small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus), of the family Cyprinidae.

melancholy

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Affected with great sadness or depression.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
    • , chapter=1 citation , passage=“[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes

    Synonyms

    * (thoughtful sadness) (l) * See also

    Noun

    (melancholies)
  • (historical) Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.
  • *, Bk.I, New York 2001, p.148:
    • Melancholy , cold and dry, thick, black, and sour,is a bridle to the other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in the blood, and nourishing the bones.
  • Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature.
  • * 1593 , (William Shakespeare), , V. i. 34:
    • My mind was troubled with deep melancholy .

    Related terms

    * melancholic * sadness

    bleak

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) bleke (also bleche > English .

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Without color; pale; pallid.
  • * Foxe
    • When she came out she looked as pale and as bleak as one that were laid out dead.
  • Desolate and exposed; swept by cold winds.
  • * Wordsworth
    • Wastes too bleak to rear / The common growth of earth, the foodful ear.
  • * Longfellow
    • at daybreak, on the bleak sea beach
    A bleak and bare rock.
    They escaped across the bleak landscape.
    A bleak , crater-pocked moonscape.
    We hiked across open meadows and climbed bleak mountains.
  • Unhappy; cheerless; miserable; emotionally desolate.
    • Downtown Albany felt bleak that February after the divorce.
    A bleak future is in store for you.
    The news is bleak .
    The survey paints a bleak picture.

    Etymology 2

    Probably from (etyl) bleikja .

    Noun

    (en noun) (wikipedia bleak)
  • A small European river fish (Alburnus alburnus ), of the family Cyprinidae.
    • Synonyms
    * alburn * blay

    References

    Anagrams

    * *