Daily AncestorMelancholia
Melancholia was the old medical name for severe depression, with deep gloom, groundless fears and brooding, seen in asylum and death records.
The word comes from Greek for black bile, the humor once blamed for sadness. Webster's 1913 describes a mental unsoundness with extreme depression of spirits, ill-grounded fears, delusions and brooding over one subject.
Today the word survives mostly as a description of deep sadness. On an old death record it names the mental illness rather than the bodily cause, so other records, such as an asylum file or an inquest, can tell you more.
As seen in a recordCause of death column, 1850 to 1880 federal mortality schedule
Rebecca Moore, 47, F, W, Melancholia
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Daily Ancestor. "Melancholia." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/causes-of-death/melancholia. Last checked 2026-10-10.