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Melancholy vs Existentialism - What's the difference?

melancholy | existentialism |

As nouns the difference between melancholy and existentialism

is that melancholy is black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies while existentialism is a twentieth-century philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices.

As an adjective melancholy

is affected with great sadness or depression.

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

    existentialism

    English

    (wikipedia existentialism)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (philosophy, not countable) A twentieth-century philosophical movement emphasizing the uniqueness of each human existence in freely making its self-defining choices.
    • The heyday of existentialism occurred in the mid-twentieth century.
  • (philosophy, countable) The philosophical views of a particular thinker associated with the existentialist movement.
    • Sartre's existentialism''' is atheistic, but the '''existentialism of Marcel is distinctly Christian.
  • * 1965 , Mikel Dufrenne, "Existentialism and Existentialisms," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , vol 26 no 1 (Sep), p. 51.
    • Instead of Existentialism', we should speak of ' Existentialisms .

    Antonyms

    * noumenalism

    Related terms

    * exist * existence * existential * existentialist