Melancholy
Etymology
From Greek “melankholia,” literally “black bile,” from “melas” (black) and “khole” (bile), reaching English through Latin and Old French. Ancient and medieval humoral medicine blamed a surplus of black bile for a settled, brooding sadness. The physiology was discarded, but the word survived to name the mood itself.
noun · /MEL-uhn-kol-ee/
A pensive, lingering sadness that is somehow tender or even pleasurable to dwell in.
What it names
The bittersweet, reflective gloom you don’t entirely want to shake — sorrow with a thoughtful, almost beautiful cast.
Example
There was a certain melancholy in packing up the old house, each box closing the door on a decade.
Related idea
Everyday sadness is a plain reaction to loss; melancholy is more chronic and contemplative, a temperament that lingers and finds a strange sweetness in sorrow.