humour
Meaning
-
- The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
- A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
- Any of the fluids in an animal body, especially the four "cardinal humours" of blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm that were believed to control the health and mood of the human body.
- Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
- (obsolete) Moist vapour, moisture.
Synonyms
liquid body substance
succus
render effeminate
mental state
normal body fluid
bize
tend with care
jeu d’esprit
render delicate
be careful with
cherish with care
treat with indulgence
lymph
Frequency
Hyphenated as
hu‧mour
Pronounced as (IPA)
/ˈhjuː.mə(ɹ)/
Etymology
In summary
From Middle English humour, from Old French humor, humour, from Latin hūmor, correctly ūmor (“liquid”), from hūmeō, correctly ūmeō (“to be moist”). The h in these words, which was silent in late Classical Latin, is folk etymological, due to the erroneous association with the word humus (“soil”). The shift in meaning "liquid" > "mood" is attributed to the classical system of physiology, where human behaviour is regulated by four bodily humours (fluids). The sense "mood" gave rise to the verb sense "to give in to someone's mood or whim" and, by narrowing of meaning, the sense "wit".
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Notes
