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Woe vs Melancholy - What's the difference?

woe | melancholy |

As nouns the difference between woe and melancholy

is that woe is grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity while melancholy is (historical) black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies.

As adjectives the difference between woe and melancholy

is that woe is (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful while melancholy is affected with great sadness or depression.

woe

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.
  • * Milton
  • Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, / Sad instrument of all our woe , she took.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • [They] weep each other's woe .
  • A curse; a malediction.
  • * South
  • Can there be a woe or curse in all the stores of vengeance equal to the malignity of such a practice?

    Derived terms

    * in weal or woe * woeful * woe is me

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful
  • * Robert of Brunne
  • His clerk was woe to do that deed.
  • * Chaucer
  • Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed.
  • * Spenser
  • And looking up he waxed wondrous woe .

    Anagrams

    *

    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 .