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Humour
Definitions
- 1 The quality of being amusing, comical, funny. UK, uncountable, usually
"She has a great sense of humour, and I always laugh a lot whenever we get together."
- 2 the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous wordnet
- 3 A mood, especially a bad mood; a temporary state of mind or disposition brought upon by an event; an abrupt illogical inclination or whim. UK, uncountable, usually
"He was in a particularly vile humour that afternoon."
- 4 the quality of being funny wordnet
- 5 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. UK, archaic, historical, uncountable, usually
"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."
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 the liquid parts of the body wordnet
- 7 Either of the two regions of liquid within the eyeball, the aqueous humour and vitreous humour. UK, uncountable, usually
- 8 (Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state wordnet
- 9 Moist vapour, moisture. UK, obsolete, uncountable, usually
- 10 a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter wordnet
- 11 a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling wordnet
- 1 To pacify by indulging. UK, transitive
"I know you don't believe my story, but humour me for a minute and imagine it to be true."
- 2 put into a good mood wordnet
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".
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".
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