Obs. [a. F. atrabile, in 16th c. atrebile (= It. atrabi·le), ad. L. ātra bīlis, used to transl. Gr. μελαγχολία black bile, melancholy, and treated in later times as a single word, as in the mod. langs.; hence the late adjs. ātrabīliārius, ātrabīlārius. (Of these the former is on the whole the more regular, though both are supported by L. analogies: cf. viridārium and viridiārium.]
lit. Black bile, ‘a term anciently used for an imaginary fluid, thick, black, and acrid,’ supposed to be secreted by the renal or atrabiliary glands, or by the spleen, and to be the cause of melancholy (Syd. Soc. Lex.); hence: Melancholy, spleen. (Also used in L. form ātra bīlis.)
1594. Carew, Huarte’s Exam. Wits (1616), 85. Choler adust, or atrabile, of which Aristotle said, That it made men exceeding wise.
1639. G. Daniel, Vervic., 638. To see my Phlegme, or Atra bilis rise.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Atrabilis was one of the great humours of the ancient physicians; whence arose the atrabilary, one of their temperaments; answering to what we call melancholy.
