A deep, persistent sadness or pensive mood — historically a broader concept than depression, encompassing thoughtfulness, genius, and creative suffering.

From the Greek melas (black) and khole (bile) — in ancient medicine, one of the four humours whose excess was believed to cause sadness and gloominess.

Aristotle explored the connection between melancholy and genius in Problemata XXX, asking why all exceptional men in philosophy, poetry, and the arts seemed to be melancholic.

Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) remains one of the most exhaustive treatments of the subject in English literature, cataloguing its causes, symptoms, and cures.

During the Renaissance, melancholy became briefly fashionable among courtiers and intellectuals, with deliberate adoption of its symptoms seen as a mark of superior sensibility.