English Explanatory Dictionary

humour

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.
  2. A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
  3. 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.
  4. Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
  5. Moist vapour, moisture.
verb
  1. To pacify by indulging.

Pronunciation

/ˈhjuː.mə(ɹ)/ /ˈhjuːmɚ/ /ˈjuːmɚ/ en-us-humor.ogg

Word forms

humour humours humor humouring humoured

Etymology

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".

Synonyms

amusingness comedy comicality wit witticism mood bodily fluid

Related words

humid humidity

Derived words

dishumour humoral humorism humorist humorous humourful humourise humourist humourless humourous humoursome outhumour anti-humour aqueous humour bad humour black humour crystalline humour dark humour dry humour gallows humour glacial humour good humour ill humour millennial humor out of humour sense of humour toilet humour vitreous humour
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