Definition of "atrabiliary"

A Cancer again is known by its renitency of touch, if it be mild it carries a black or livid colour outwards, so made by the peccant humour or atrabiliary juice; there's no heat felt on the touch, but rather a coldness in the part; […]

1703, John Browne, The Surgeon's Assistant. In which is Plainly Discovered the True Origin of Most Diseases. Treating Particularly of the Plague, French Pox, Leprosie, &c. of the Biting of Mad Dogs, and other Venemous Creatures. Also a Compleat Treatise of Cancers and Gangreens. With an Enquiry whether they have any Alliance with Contagious Diseases. Their most Easie, and Speedy Method of Cure. With Diverse Approved Receipts, London: Printed for James Knapton, at the Crown in St Paul Church-yard, page 83

[…] 'Tis true, when once a Schirrus is formed in a glandular Part, no one can tell how it may terminate; becauſe various changes may ariſe from various Cauſes in the Conſtitution of the Perſon; and if the Juices ſhould degenerate into a highly acrid, or what the Ancients termed an atrabiliary State, the Schirrus will be (cæteris paribus) more liable to become a Cancer.

1753, William Norford, An Essay on the General Method of Treating Cancerous Tumours. In which the Opinions of some of the most Celebrated Authors, who have Writ on this Subject, are Examined, and Compared. The Whole Endeavouring to Shew what Stages of that Formidable Disease are Curable. Illustrated with Several Extraordinary Cases, London: Printed for J. Noon, at the White Hart in Cheapside, near the Poultry, page 66

Urine of a green Colour with a thick Sediment, denotes, 1. an atrabiliary Habit; 2. that the atrabiliary Matter now begins to be diſſolved and diſcharged, and that therefore, 3. there muſt be Anxieties about the Præcordia, a Diſturbance in the Bowels, with iliacal ancolicky Pains, &c.

1757, Herman Boerhaave, Dr. Boerhaave's Academical Lectures on the Theory of Physic. Being a Genuine Translation of his Institutes and Explanatory Comment, Collated and Adjusted to Each Other, as they were Dictated to his Students at the University of Leyden, volume VI, London: Printed for J. Rivington [et al.], page 226

Becauſe by theſe the blood is thinned, and the atrabiliary matter reſolved. But as the diſeaſe is of the chronic kind, theſe means muſt be continued a long time. […] We have hitherto conſidered the atrabiliary matter as equally diſperſed throughout the circulating humours; but if its quantity be increaſed, it may ſtick in divers parts of the body, and produce the worſt kinds of obſtructions.

1774, Gerard van Swieten with Herman Boerhaave, edited by Colin Hossack, An Abridgement of Baron Van Swieten's Commentaries upon the Aphorisms of the Celebrated Dr. Herman Boerhaave, Late Professor of Physic, &c. in the University of Leyden. Concerning the Knowledge and Cure of Diseases. [...] In Five Volumes, volume III, London: Printed for Robert Horsfield, No. 22, in Ludgate-street; and Thomas Longman, No. 39, in Pater-noster Row, page 249

The four sorts of humours performed in the human body (microcosm) a part as important as the four elements did in the whole universe (macrocosm.) The bile, the blood, the pituitary and atrabiliary fluids determined, by their predominance the different temperaments, and produced the different diseases. The atrabiliary humour was, as is well known, thought to be the cause of melancholy and mania; […]

1827, [Marie François] Xavier Bichat, translated by F. Gold, Physiological Researches on Life and Death, Boston, Ma.: Richardson and Lord, page 206

The cold meningitis is due either to the lymphatic or the atrabiliary humors. […] There are two kinds of hot meningitis: One, atrabiliary; the other, atrabiliary mixed with a blood component.

2005, Journal of the Society for Armenian Studies, Los Angeles and Fresno, Calif., Dearborn, Mich.: The Society, page 172

ATRABIL′IARY, ATRABIL′IOUS, a. Melancholic, or hypochondriacal; from the supposed preponderance of black bile. – atrabiliary capsules, the renal or supra-renal glands or capsules.

1856, John Ogilvie, editor, A Supplement to the Imperial Dictionary, English, Technological, and Scientific: Containing an Extensive Collection of Words, Terms, and Phrases, in the Various Departments of Literature, Science, and Art; together with Numerous Obsolete, Obsolescent, and Scottish Words, found in Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Scott, not Included in Previous English Dictionaries, Glasgow, Edinburgh and London: Blackie and Son, pages 35, columns 2–3

[…] that chronic dissatisfaction at the imperfections of ordinary mortality and that yearning after the impossible incarnation of some superhuman ideal, which are characteristic of the typical "reformer," especially in his more atrabiliary moments.

1890, The American Catholic Quarterly Review, volume 15, Philadelphia, Pa.: Hardy and Mahony, page 105

But unquestionably the most atrabiliary of the men of letters whom I knew in Paris at that time was [Nicolas] Chamfort. Attacked with the disorder that produced the Jacobins, he was unable to forgive mankind for the accident of his birth.

1902, François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, translated by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, The Memoirs of François René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand, Sometime Ambassador to England: Being a Translation by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos of the Mémoires d'outre-tombe, with Illustrations from Contemporary Sources, London: Freemantle and Co., page 132

Daily he became more atrabiliary, sinking into a state of melancholy that eliminates the joy of living into the sadness of living.

1910, Proceedings of the Literary & Philosophical Society of Liverpool, number 61, Liverpool: The Society, page 18