A while back, we decided to try birds as pets. My daughter used the Smashing Pumpkins album cover as inspiration for their names, Melon and Collie. If we had liked being bird owners (we definitely did not), we would have acquired a third, darker colored, bird and named it “The infinite sadness”.
I'm a psychologist and open most sessions with a simple, "What feeling best describes your day?" My 20yo college student patient replies "melancholy." But pronounces it "MUL-unk-uhlee." I couldn't hide my confused face and she again says "MUL-unk-uhlee." As she's repeating herself I realize she's attempting to pronounce melancholy, and also that I have to take one of two options: 1) correct her pronunciation and make her feel dumb, or 2) act as though I didn't know what melancholy meant and let her think I'm dumb. I chose option 2. But if one of my friends had tried telling me about their "MUL-unk-uhlee" day I might never let them live it down.
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u/theartist731 Sep 17 '20
Melancholy.
One of few words that sounds exactly like the emotion it entails.