Melancholia

Word of the Day

melancholia \ mel-un-KOH-lee-uh \ noun

 

1: a mental condition and especially a manic-depressive condition characterized by extreme depression, bodily complaints, and often hallucinations and delusions;

 

2: a feeling of sadness and depression, broadly

 

EXAMPLES

"As the debates about the future shape of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Fifth Edition, continue, a review of one of the liveliest arguments, about melancholia as a diagnostic category in its own right, appears timely."

— From an article by Paul Grof in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, April 2013

"While some lyrics in Brian Wilson's handwriting are drenched in melancholia, most convey the band's signature, sunny optimism."

— From an article in The Daily Home (Talladega, Alabama), April 20, 2013

 

DID YOU KNOW?

Today's word traces back to Greek "melan " ("black, dark") and "cholē" ("bile"). Medical practitioners once adhered to the system of humors—bodily fluids that included black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm.
An imbalance of these humors was thought to lead to disorders of the mind and body. One suffering from an excess of black bile (believed to be secreted by the kidneys or spleen) could become sullen and unsociable - liable to anger, irritability, brooding, and depression.
Today, doctors no longer ascribe physical and mental disorders to the disruption of the four humors (thank goodness!), but the word "melancholia" is still used in psychiatry (it is identified as a "subtype" of clinical depression in the Diagnositc and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and as a general term for despondency.

 

Haggard

Word of the Day

haggard \ HAG-urd \ adjective

 

1a : wild in appearance

1b : having a worn or emaciated appearance : gaunt

 

EXAMPLES

The mountain climbers were hungry and haggard but were otherwise in good shape after having been stranded on the mountain for more than a week.

"[Dorothea] Lange's 1936 photographs of California migrant worker Florence Owens Thompson and her children capture the haggard desperation of Thompson and her brood during the Great Depression…."

— Chuck Sudo, Chicagoist, November 7, 2014

 

DID YOU KNOW?

Haggard comes from falconry, the sport of hunting with a trained bird of prey. The birds used in falconry were not bred in captivity until very recently. Traditionally, falconers trained wild birds that were either taken from the nest when quite young or trapped as adults.
A bird trapped as an adult is termed a haggard, from the Middle French hagard. Such a bird is notoriously wild and difficult to train, and it wasn't long before the falconry sense of haggard was being applied in an extended way to a "wild" and intractable person.
Next, the word came to express the way the human face looks when a person is exhausted, anxious, or terrified. Today, the most common meaning of haggard is "gaunt" or "worn."

 

Shopaholic

Word of the Day

shopaholic \ shah-puh-HAH-lik \ noun

 

: one who is extremely or excessively fond of shopping

 

EXAMPLES

Susie is such a shopaholic that her friends refuse to set foot in a mall with her when there are big sales.

"Uncle Sam is a shopaholic, the world's most prolific buyer of goods and services. Every year, the federal government spends between $350 billion and $500 billion on procurement."
— editorial, The Times-Tribune (Scranton, Pennsylvania), September 20, 2014

 

DID YOU KNOW?

The word alcoholic refers to someone who has a serious disorder. Addictive shopping can be serious, too, but the word shopaholic is most often used playfully to suggest mere excess rather than true addiction. Shopaholic first appeared in print in 1983. It was formed on the model of alcoholic, which was itself created many years earlier by combining alcohol with -ic, meaning "of or relating to."

People evidently saw a parallel between someone addicted to alcohol and someone "addicted" to shopping. This is not the first time alcoholic has spawned a spinoff word—shopaholic was preceded by workaholic and chocoholic, both of which first turned up in 1968.