A Word A Day —atrabilious

This week’s theme: Words from medicine.

atrabilious (at-ruh-BIL-yuhs) adjective

   1. Gloomy.

   2. Ill-tempered.

[From Latin atra bilis (black bile), translation of Greek melankholia.]

Today’s word in Visual Thesaurus: http://visualthesaurus.com/?w1=atrabilious

-Anu Garg (words at wordsmith.org)

  “A couple of nights ago on BBC Two they scheduled an amusing programme, called Grumpy Old Women at Christmas, in which a lot of atrabilious female semi celebs of a certain age moaned about the festive season.”
   Jane Shilling; Not a Card Sent or a Bauble Hung; The Times (London, UK); Dec 23, 2004.

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Obstinacy is the result of the will forcing itself into the place of the intellect. -Arthur Schopenhauer, philosopher (1788-1860)

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Pronunciation: http://wordsmith.org/words//home/wsmith/ws/AWAD/Audio/atrabilious.mp3

Permalink: http://wordsmith.org/words/atrabilious.html