atrabilious, a.
(ætrəˈbɪlɪəs)
[f. L. ātra bīlis (see atrabile) + -ous, after L. bīliōsus bilious.]
Affected by black bile or ‘choler adust’; melancholy, hypochondriac; splenetic, acrimonious.
| 1651 Biggs New Disp. ¶220 Some æruginous or atrabilious. 1816 Southey Ess. Mor. & Pol. (1832) I. 270 It would make the English..fonder of life, less atrabilious. 1849 Lowell Biglow P. Wks. 1879. 179/1 A hard-faced, atrabilious, earnest-eyed race. 1866 Carlyle Remin. (1881) II. 206 My atrabilious censures. |