humour

EnglishEdit

 
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Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English humour, from Old French humor, from Latin humor, correctly umor (“moisture”), from humere, correctly umere (“to be moist”).

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

humour (usually uncountable, plural humours) (British spelling)

  1. (uncountable) The quality of being amusing, comical, funny. [from the early 18th c.]
    She has a great sense of humour, and I always laugh a lot whenever we get together.
    The sensitive subject was treated with humour, but in such way that no one was offended.
    • 1774, Oliver Goldsmith, Retaliation
      For thy sake I admit / That a Scot may have humour, I'd almost said wit.
    • 1824, Geoffrey Crayon [pseudonym; Washington Irving], Tales of a Traveller, (please specify |part=1 to 4), Philadelphia, Pa.: H[enry] C[harles] Carey & I[saac] Lea, […], OCLC 864083:
      A great deal of excellent humour was expended on the perplexities of mine host.
    • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published 1919, OCLC 491297620:
      They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups. The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits.
    • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
      Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.
    Synonyms: amusingness, comedy, comicality, wit
  2. (uncountable) A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim.
    He was in a particularly vile humour that afternoon.
    • 1625, Francis Bacon, Apophthegms
      a prince of a pleasant humour
    • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, “The Merry VViues of VVindsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:
      I like not the humour of lying.
    • 1684, Lord Roscommon, Essay on Translated Verse
      Examine how your humour is inclined, / And which the ruling passion of your mind.
    • 1698, Robert South, Twelve Sermons upon Several Subjects and Occasions
      Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humours to be endured?
    • 1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock:
      […] (it was the town's humour to be always gassing of phantom investors who were likely to come any moment and pay a thousand prices for everything) — “[…] Them rich fellers, they don't make no bad breaks with their money. […]”
    Synonym: mood
  3. (archaic or historical) 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.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 54573970:
      , Book I, New York 2001,page 147:
      A humour is a liquid or fluent part of the body, comprehended in it, for the preservation of it; and is either innate or born with us, or adventitious and acquisite.
    • 1763, Antoine-Simon Le Page Du Pratz, History of Louisisana (PG), (tr. 1774) page 42:
      For some days a fistula lacrymalis had come into my left eye, which discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger.
    Synonym: bodily fluid
  4. (medicine) Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour.
  5. (obsolete) Moist vapour, moisture.

SynonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Related termsEdit

DescendantsEdit

  • → Korean: 유머 (yumeo)

TranslationsEdit

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

VerbEdit

humour (third-person singular simple present humours, present participle humouring, simple past and past participle humoured)

  1. (transitive) To pacify by indulging.
    I know you don't believe my story, but humour me for a minute and imagine it to be true.

TranslationsEdit

See alsoEdit

FrenchEdit

EtymologyEdit

Borrowed from English humour. Doublet of humeur.

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

humour m (plural humours)

  1. humor; comic effect in a communication or performance.

Related termsEdit

Further readingEdit

ItalianEdit

EtymologyEdit

From English humour.

NounEdit

humour m (invariable)

  1. sense of humour

Further readingEdit

  • humour in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Middle EnglishEdit

Alternative formsEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Old French humor, from Latin hūmor, ūmor.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /iu̯ˈmuːr/, /ˈiu̯mur/

NounEdit

humour (plural humours)

  1. A "cardinal humour" (four liquids believed to affect health and mood)
  2. A bodily liquid or substance that causes disease or affliction.
  3. A bodily liquid or substance that is caused by disease.
  4. One of the two (usually reckoned as three or four) fluidous portions of the eye.
  5. Any fluid; something which flows or moves in a fluidous manner:
    1. The liquid contained within a plant; plant juices.
    2. (rare) A liquid of the human body (e.g. blood)
  6. A mist or gas; a substance dissipated in the air.
  7. (rare) One of the four classical elements (fire, earth, air, and water).

DescendantsEdit

ReferencesEdit

See alsoEdit

Old FrenchEdit

NounEdit

humour m or f

  1. (Anglo-Norman) Alternative form of humor
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