Hello,
I love finding new words in novels so having a character described as atrabilious in Edmund Crispin’s “The Moving Toyshop” intrigued me instantly.
The Merriam Webster dictionary site tells me that it means the person was gloomy, ill-natured, and peevish.
I’m currently reading “The Secret Garden” to my children (they’re loving it) and the central girl character, Mary, is constantly described as “contrary” which means the same thing. I had to look it up with my children to satisfy their curiosity. I suppose “Mary, Mary quite atrabilious” doesn’t really have the same ring to it.
Apparently the word, like many in English, comes from the Latin – atra bilis – black bile. Nice image that. If you need to rhyme it in a poem you can use supercilious. How about…
“Mary Mary quite atrabilious
You’re thin and pale and very supercilious”
Nah, poetry isn’t my thing, is it?
Until next time, happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,
Grace
Wordfoolery 
Small world for word fools. I just started reading The Secret Garden, today! Thanks for the new word. I must use it in a Regency-style sentence:
Among our gathered friends were some few ladies who remained ever more atrabilious in response to the incessant blizzard, which had, at last, cancelled the ball; and those ladies, lips pinched and arms linked over-tight, took gloomy turns around the room.
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