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Humours

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hu⋅mour

  [hyoo-mer]
Use Humours in a Sentence
–noun, verb (used with object), Chiefly British.
humor.
Usage note:
See -or 1 .
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hu⋅mor

  [hyoo-mer or, often, yoo-]
–noun
1. a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement: the humor of a situation.
2. the faculty of perceiving what is amusing or comical: He is completely without humor.
3. an instance of being or attempting to be comical or amusing; something humorous: The humor in his joke eluded the audience.
4. the faculty of expressing the amusing or comical: The author's humor came across better in the book than in the movie.
5. comical writing or talk in general; comical books, skits, plays, etc.
6. humors, peculiar features; oddities; quirks: humors of life.
7. mental disposition or temperament.
8. a temporary mood or frame of mind: The boss is in a bad humor today.
9. a capricious or freakish inclination; whim or caprice; odd trait.
10. (in medieval physiology) one of the four elemental fluids of the body, blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile, regarded as determining, by their relative proportions, a person's physical and mental constitution.
11. any animal or plant fluid, whether natural or morbid, as the blood or lymph.
–verb (used with object)
12. to comply with the humor or mood of in order to soothe or make content or more agreeable: to humor a child.
13. to adapt or accommodate oneself to.
—Idiom
14. out of humor, displeased; dissatisfied; cross: The chef is feeling out of humor again and will have to be treated carefully.
Also, especially British, humour.

Origin:
1300–50; ME (h)umour < AF < L (h)ūmōr- (s. of (h)ūmor) moisture, fluid (medical L: body fluid), equiv. to (h)ūm(ēre) to be wet (see humid ) + -ōr- -or 1

Related forms:
hu⋅mor⋅ful, adjective
hu⋅mor⋅less, adjective
hu⋅mor⋅less⋅ly, adverb
hu⋅mor⋅less⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
4. Humor, wit refer to an ability to perceive and express a sense of the clever or amusing. Humor consists principally in the recognition and expression of incongruities or peculiarities present in a situation or character. It is frequently used to illustrate some fundamental absurdity in human nature or conduct, and is generally thought of as more kindly than wit: a genial and mellow type of humor; his biting wit. Wit is a purely intellectual manifestation of cleverness and quickness of apprehension in discovering analogies between things really unlike, and expressing them in brief, diverting, and often sharp observations or remarks. 9. fancy, vagary. 12. Humor, gratify, indulge imply attempting to satisfy the wishes or whims of (oneself or others). To humor is to comply with a mood, fancy, or caprice, as in order to satisfy, soothe, or manage: to humor an invalid. To gratify is to please by satisfying the likings or desires: to gratify someone by praising him. Indulge suggests a yielding to wishes that perhaps should not be given in to: to indulge an unreasonable demand; to indulge an irresponsible son.

Antonyms:
12. discipline, restrain.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To Humours
hu·mour   (hyōō'mər)   
n.   & v. Chiefly British
Variant of humor.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Cultural Dictionary

humor

An archaic term for any fluid substance in the body, such as blood, lymph, or bile.

Note: Physicians in the Middle Ages believed that four principal humors — blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile — controlled body functions and that a person's temperament resulted from the humor that was most prevalent in the body. Sanguine people were controlled by blood, phlegmatic people by phlegm, choleric people by yellow bile (also known as “choler”), and melancholic people by black bile (also known as “melancholy”).
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Word Origin & History

humor 
1340, "fluid or juice of an animal or plant," from Anglo-Norm. humour, from O.Fr. humor, from L. umor "body fluid" (also humor, by false assoc. with humus "earth"), related to umere "be wet, moist," and to uvescere "become wet." In ancient and medieval physiology, "any of the four body fluids" (blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy or black bile) whose relative proportions were thought to determine state of mind. This led to a sense of "mood, temporary state of mind" (first recorded 1525); the sense of "amusing quality, funniness" is first recorded 1682, probably via sense of "whim, caprice" (1565), which also produced the verb sense of "indulge," first attested 1588. "The pronunciation of the initial h is only of recent date, and is sometimes omitted ...." [OED] Humorous in the modern sense is first recorded 1705. For types of humor, see the useful table below, from H.W. Fowler ["Modern English Usage," 1926].

deviceHUMORWITSATIRESARCASMINVECTIVEIRONYCYNICISMSARDONIC
motive/aimdiscoverythrowing lightamendmentinflicting paindiscreditexclusivenessself-justificationself-relief
provincehuman naturewords & ideasmorals & mannersfaults & foiblesmisconductstatement of factsmoralsadversity
method/meansobservationsurpriseaccentuationinversiondirect statementmystificationexposure of nakednesspessimism
audiencethe sympatheticthe intelligentthe self-satisfiedvictim & bystanderthe publican inner circlethe respectablethe self

humour 
See humor.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: hu·mor
Variant: or chiefly British hu·mour /'hyü-m&r, 'yü-/
Function: noun
1 a : a normalfunctioning bodily semifluid or fluid (as the blood or lymph) b : a secretion (as a hormone) that is an excitant of activity
2 in ancient and medieval physiology : a fluid or juice of an animal or plant; specifically : one of the four fluids that were believed to enter into the constitution of the body and to determine by their relativeproportions a person's health and temperament —see BLACK BILE, BLOOD 3, PHLEGM 1, YELLOW BILE

Main Entry: humour
chiefly British variant of HUMOR
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Medical Dictionary

humor hu·mor (hy&oomacr;'mər)
n.

  1. A body fluid, such as blood, lymph, or bile.

  2. Aqueous humor.

  3. Vitreous humor.

  4. One of the four fluids of the body, blood, phlegm, choler, and black bile, whose relative proportions were thought in ancient and medieval physiology to determine a person's disposition and general health.

  5. A person's characteristic disposition or temperament.

  6. An often temporary state of mind; a mood.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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