Humour

Dictionary of Biological Psychology

The term humour has two meanings: (i) it is an antique term describing any body fluids (it derives from Latin, humor: moist—and note that the American spelling, humor, is an accurate use of the original Latin term). The adjective humoural (or humoral) is used to describe a body fluid.

It is a term that survives in its description of AQUEOUS HUMOUR and VITREOUS HUMOUR, fluids found in the EYE. Ancient wisdom had it that there were four essential body fluids: BLOOD, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm which were associated with different temperaments—respectively, sanguine, melancholic, choleric and phlegmatic. The term melancholic was once used to describe patients who would now be diagnosed as having DEPRESSION. (ii) Humour describes a mental quality—the appreciation of that which has the quality of mirth or levity; see LAUGHTER,