humour
pronunciation
How to pronounce humour in British English:
UK [ˈhjuːmə(r)]
How to pronounce humour in American English:
US [ˈhjuːmər]
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- Noun:
- a characteristic (habitual or relatively temporary) state of feeling
- a message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter
- (Middle Ages) one of the four fluids in the body whose balance was believed to determine your emotional and physical state
- the liquid parts of the body
- the quality of being funny
- the trait of appreciating (and being able to express) the humorous
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- Verb:
- put into a good mood
Word Origin
- humour
- humour: [14] Latin hūmēre meant ‘be moist’ (from it was derived hūmidus, source of English humid [16]). And related to it was the noun hūmor, which signified originally simply ‘liquid’. In due course it came to be applied specifically to any of the four bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, choler, and black bile) whose combinations according to medieval theories of physiology determined a person’s general health and temperament.This was the sense in which English acquired the word, via Anglo-Norman humour, and it gradually developed in meaning via ‘mental disposition at a particular time, mood’ and ‘inclination, whim’ to, in the late 17th century, the main modern sense ‘funniness’.=> humid
- humour
- chiefly British English spelling of humor; see -or. Related: Humourous; humourist.
Example
- 1. In those cases we see humour instead of horror .
- 2. Even among the rubble it is possible to hear neighbours greet each other and visitors with polite humour .
- 3. Even provine believes humour is important .
- 4. His wry humour may have its purpose .
- 5. All humour involves how people think and act .