When I was a teenager (in the Dark Ages), my younger sister was reading a book passage aloud to our mom and me. She came to a word she didn’t recognize, paused, then came out with “muh-LANK-o-lee filled her days.” Mom immediately burst into laughter while I was still trying to figure out what my sister was saying. The word was melancholy — not an easy one for a 12-year-old, even a well-read one, to figure out.
