| Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. |
| |
| humor (n.) |
| |
| |
| (pronounced either HYOO-muhr or YOO-muhr) has two important clusters of meaning in current English. The most constantly before us is “something funny,” “a sense of what is ludicrous, amusing, comical, silly, or funny,” and “writing or speech that expresses or illustrates these things.” But also important are the older senses clustered on the four cardinal humors that underlay medieval ideas of health, personality, or temperament: these were blood, phlegm, choler, and melancholy. The meanings of humor in I’m in a bad humor (meaning “mood”) and Develop a good-humored attitude (meaning “a pleasant, cheerful one”) are not the same as the meaning of a sense of humor, which refers to a sense of the ludicrous. See also BLACK HUMOR; BURLESQUE; SATIRE; SICK HUMOR. | 1 |
| |
| | | The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. Copyright © 1993 Columbia University Press. |
|
|
