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.
[Origin: 1300–50; ME (h)umour < AF < L (h)ūmōr- (s. of (h)ūmor) moisture, fluid (medical L: body fluid), equiv. to (h)ūm(ére) to be wet (see humid) + -ōr--or1]
—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.
The quality that makes something laughable or amusing; funniness: could not see the humor of the situation.
That which is intended to induce laughter or amusement: a writer skilled at crafting humor.
The ability to perceive, enjoy, or express what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd. See Synonyms at wit1.
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.
Physiology
A body fluid, such as blood, lymph, or bile.
Aqueous humor.
Vitreous humor.
A sudden, unanticipated whim. See Synonyms at mood1.
Capricious or peculiar behavior.
A person's characteristic disposition or temperament: a boy of sullen humor.
An often temporary state of mind; a mood: I'm in no humor to argue.
A sudden, unanticipated whim. See Synonyms at mood1.
Capricious or peculiar behavior.
tr.v.
hu·mored, hu·mor·ing, hu·mors
To comply with the wishes or ideas of; indulge.
To adapt or accommodate oneself to. See Synonyms at pamper.
[Middle English, fluid, from Old French umor, from Latin ūmor, hūmor.]
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].
a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter [syn: wit]
2.
the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous; "she didn't appreciate my humor"; "you can't survive in the army without a sense of humor"
3.
a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling; "whether he praised or cursed me depended on his temper at the time"; "he was in a bad humor" [syn: temper]
4.
the quality of being funny; "I fail to see the humor in it"
5.
(Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state; "the humors are blood and phlegm and yellow and black bile"
One of the four fluids of the body—blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile—whose relative proportions were thought in ancient and medieval medicine to determine general health and character.
Our Living Language: Doctors in ancient times and in the Middle Ages thought the human body contained a mixture of four substances, called humors, that determined a person's health and character. The humors were fluids (humor means "fluid" in Latin), and they differed from each other in being either warm or cold and moist or dry. Each humor was also associated with one of the four elements, the basic substances that made up the universe in ancient schemes of thought. Blood was the warm, moist humor associated with the element fire, and phlegm was the cold, moist humor associated with water. Black bile was the cold, dry humor associated with the earth, and yellow bile was the warm, dry humor associated with the air. Illnesses were thought to be caused by an imbalance in the humors within the body, as were defects in personality, and some medical terminology in English still reflects these outmoded concepts. For example, too much black bile was thought to make a person gloomy, and nowadays symptoms of depression such as insomnia and lack of pleasure in enjoyable activities are described as melancholic symptoms, ultimately from the Greek word melancholia, "excess of black bile," formed from melan-, "black," and khole, "bile." The old term for the cold, clammy humor, phlegm, lives on today as the word for abnormally large accumulations of mucus in the upper respiratory tract. Another early name of yellow bile in English, choler, is related to the name of the disease cholera, which in earlier times denoted stomach disorders thought to be due to an imbalance of yellow bile. Both words are ultimately from the Greek word chole, "bile."
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”).
Dis*tem"per\, n. [See Distemper, v. t., and cf. Destemprer.]1. An undue or unnatural temper, or disproportionate mixture of parts. --Bacon. Note: This meaning and most of the following are to be referred to the Galenical doctrine of the four "humors" in man. See Humor. According to the old physicians, these humors, when unduly tempered, produce a disordered state of body and mind. 2. Severity of climate; extreme weather, whether hot or cold. [Obs.] Those countries . . . under the tropic, were of a distemper uninhabitable. --Sir W. Raleigh. 3. A morbid state of the animal system; indisposition; malady; disorder; -- at present chiefly applied to diseases of brutes; as, a distemper in dogs; the horse distemper; the horn distemper in cattle. They heighten distempers to diseases. --Suckling. 4. Morbid temper of the mind; undue predominance of a passion or appetite; mental derangement; bad temper; ill humor. [Obs.] Little faults proceeding on distemper. --Shak. Some frenzy distemper had got into his head. --Bunyan. 5. Political disorder; tumult. --Waller. 6. (Paint.) (a) A preparation of opaque or body colors, in which the pigments are tempered or diluted with weak glue or size (cf. Tempera) instead of oil, usually for scene painting, or for walls and ceilings of rooms. (b) A painting done with this preparation. Syn: Disease; disorder; sickness; illness; malady; indisposition; ailment. See Disease.
Hu"mor\, n. [OE. humour, OF. humor, umor, F. humeur, L. humor, umor, moisture, fluid, fr. humere, umere, to be moist. See Humid.] [Written also humour.]1. Moisture, especially, the moisture or fluid of animal bodies, as the chyle, lymph, etc.; as, the humors of the eye, etc. Note: The ancient physicians believed that there were four humors (the blood, phlegm, yellow bile or choler, and black bile or melancholy), on the relative proportion of which the temperament and health depended. 2. (Med.) A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin. "A body full of humors." --Sir W. Temple. 3. State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly supposed to depend on the character or combination of the fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood; as, good humor; ill humor. Examine how your humor is inclined, And which the ruling passion of your mind. --Roscommon. A prince of a pleasant humor. --Bacon. I like not the humor of lying. --Shak. 4. pl. Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices; freaks; vagaries; whims. Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion? Has he not humors to be endured? --South. 5. That quality of the imagination which gives to ideas an incongruous or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations; a playful fancy; facetiousness. For thy sake I admit That a Scot may have humor, I'd almost said wit. --Goldsmith. A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplexities of mine host. --W. Irving. Aqueous humor, Crystalline humor or lens, Vitreous humor. (Anat.) See Eye. Out of humor, dissatisfied; displeased; in an unpleasant frame of mind. Syn: Wit; satire; pleasantry; temper; disposition; mood; frame; whim; fancy; caprice. See Wit.
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