melancholy vs wretched

melancholy

adj
  • Affected with great sadness or depression. 

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. 

wretched

adj
  • Characterized by or feeling deep affliction or distress; very miserable. 

  • Of a person, etc.: behaving in a manner deserving contempt; base, despicable, wicked. 

  • Of weather: causing much discomfort; very unpleasant; miserable. 

  • Of an inferior or unworthy nature or social status; contemptible, lowly. 

  • Of an insignificant, mean, or poor nature; miserable, paltry, worthless. 

  • Used to express annoyance towards or dislike of someone or something: bloody, damned. 

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