choleric

English

Etymology

From Middle English colerik, from Old French colerique, from Latin cholericus.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒl(ə)ɹɪk/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑlɝɪk/, /kəˈlɛɹɪk/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈkɔl(ɘ)ɹɘk/, /kɘˈliəɹɘk/

Adjective

choleric (comparative more choleric, superlative most choleric)

1. (according to theories of the four humours or temperaments) Having a temperament characterized by an excess of choler; easily becoming angry.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Travel”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     And let a man beware, how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels.

   • 1640, George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum; or, Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, etc., in The Remains of that Sweet Singer of the Temple George Herbert, London: Pickering, 1841, p. 146,^[1]

     From a choleric man withdraw a little; from him that says nothing for ever.

   • 1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Thirty-fifth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1841, →OCLC:

     As it was clear that he was a choleric fellow in some respects, Mr Swiveller was relieved to find him in such good humour, and, to encourage him in it, smiled himself.

   • 1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, 1944, →OCLC:

     Beneath his choleric exterior Gerald O’Hara had the tenderest of hearts.

2. Showing or expressing anger.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     What, what, my lord! are you so choleric
     With Eleanor, for telling but her dream?

   • 1667, John Dryden, Sir Martin Mar-all‎^[2], act V, scene 1:

     How angry the poor devil is! In fine, thou art as choleric as a cook by a fireside.

   • 1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “An Account of the Conference between Mrs. Bull and Don Diego Dismallo”, in John Bull in His Senses: Being the Second Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], Edinburgh: […] James Watson, […], →OCLC, page 20:

     For God’s ſake, Madam, vvhy ſo Cholerick? I ſay, this Letter is ſome Forgery; […]

3. Of or relating to cholera (infectious disease).
   • 1833, David Craigie, “Observations, pathological and therapeutic, on the epidemic cholera, as it has prevailed in Edinburgh and its vicinity”, in Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, number 114, page 21:

     I now proceed to enumerate those lesions and morbid changes found in the bodies of those cut off by cholera, which must have preceded the appearance of the disease, and which, existing, as they did, in very different organs, had no connection with the choleric symptoms, but nevertheless rendered the chance of recovery much less likely.

4. (obsolete) Causing an excess of choler.
   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     I fear it is too choleric a meat.
     How say you to a fat tripe finely broil’d?

Synonyms

• (easily becoming angry): ill-tempered, irascible, temperamental
• (showing anger): wrathful, irate, angry, indignant, vexed

Related terms

• choler

Translations

easily becoming angry

• Bulgarian: раздразнителен (bg) (razdraznitelen), сприхав (bg) (sprihav)
• Catalan: colèric
• Dutch: cholerisch (nl), kwaad (nl)
• Finnish: koleerinen (fi), raivoisa (fi)
• Galician: colérico
• Greek:

  Ancient: ὀξύθυμος (oxúthumos)

• Hungarian: kolerikus (hu), lobbanékony (hu), hirtelen haragú, ingerlékeny (hu)
• Italian: collerico (it)
• Maori: whanewhane
• Portuguese: colérico (pt)
• Spanish: colérico (es)
• Swedish: kolerisk (sv)
• Ukrainian: холерик (xoleryk)

Noun

choleric (plural cholerics)

1. A person with a choleric temperament.
   • c. 1915, John Adams, Making the Most of One’s Mind‎^[3], New York: Hodder & Stoughton, page 21:

     The cholerics show ambition, stubbornness, love of work, courage […]

   • 1984, Tim LaHaye, Your Temperament: Discover its Potential, republished as Why You Act the Way You Do, Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House, 2012,^[4]

     No one utters more caustic comments than a sarcastic choleric!

2. A person suffering from cholera (infectious disease).
   • 1832, Ashbel Smith, The Cholera Spasmodica‎^[5], New York: P. Hill, page 59:

     Persons laboring under pulmonary affections appear to be less liable than others, though I have found softened tubercles in some cholerics.