despondency vs melancholy

despondency

noun
  • A feeling of depression or disheartenment. 

  • The loss of hope or confidence; despair or dejection. 

melancholy

noun
  • Great sadness or depression, especially of a thoughtful or introspective nature. 

  • Black bile, formerly thought to be one of the four "cardinal humours" of animal bodies. 

adj
  • Affected with great sadness or depression. 

How often have the words despondency and melancholy occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )