noun
- plural of melancholia; people who suffer from melancholia or severe depression and sadness
Usage: formal or medical; archaic or literary in modern usage
Examples
- The physician studied melancholiacs in the hospital ward to understand the nature of their condition.
- In medieval times, melancholiacs were thought to have an excess of black bile.
- The poet wrote sympathetically about melancholiacs and their inner struggles.
- Modern psychiatry has largely replaced the term melancholiacs with more precise diagnostic categories.