What is "humor"

Humor \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 Crystalline 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.

Humor \Hu"mor\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Humored; p. pr. & vb. n. Humoring.]

1. To comply with the humor of; to adjust matters so as suit the peculiarities, caprices, or exigencies of; to adapt one's self to; to indulge by skillful adaptation; as, to humor the mind.

   It is my part to invent, and the musician's to humor that invention.
   --Dryden.

2. To help on by indulgence or compliant treatment; to soothe; to gratify; to please.

   You humor me when I am sick.
   --Pope.

   Syn: To gratify; to indulge. See Gratify.

mid-14c., "fluid or juice of an animal or plant," from Old North French humour (Old French humor; Modern French humeur), from Latin umor "body fluid" (also humor, by false association with humus "earth"); related to umere "be wet, moist," and to uvescere "become wet," from PIE *wegw- "wet."\n

\nIn 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 1520s); the sense of "amusing quality, funniness" is first recorded 1680s, probably via sense of "whim, caprice" (1560s), which also produced the verb sense of "indulge," first attested 1580s. "The pronunciation of the initial h is only of recent date, and is sometimes omitted ...." [OED] For types of humor, see the useful table below, from H.W. Fowler ["Modern English Usage," 1926].\n

\n\n\n\ndevice\nHUMOR\nWIT\nSATIRE\nSARCASM\nINVECTIVE\n\nIRONY\nCYNICISM\nSARDONIC\n\n\nmotive/aim\ndiscovery\nthrowing light\namendment\ninflicting pain\n\ndiscredit\nexclusiveness\nself-justification\nself-relief\n\n\nprovince\nhuman nature\nwords & ideas\n\nmorals & manners\nfaults & foibles\nmisconduct\nstatement of facts\nmorals\nadversity\n\n\nmethod/means\n\nobservation\nsurprise\naccentuation\ninversion\ndirect statement\nmystification\nexposure of nakedness\npessimism\n\n\n\naudience\nthe sympathetic\nthe intelligent\nthe self-satisfied\nvictim & bystander\nthe public\nan inner circle\nthe respectable\n\nthe self\n\n

1580s; see humor (n.). Related: Humored; humoring.

n. (alternative spelling of humour from=American spelling English) vb. (alternative spelling of humour from=American spelling English)

v. put into a good mood [syn: humour]

1. n. a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter [syn: wit, humour, witticism, wittiness]

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" [syn: humour, sense of humor, sense of humour]

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, mood, humour]

4. the quality of being funny; "I fail to see the humor in it" [syn: humour]

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" [syn: humour]

6. the liquid parts of the body [syn: liquid body substance, bodily fluid, body fluid, humour]