Humor

(or yū'mur, 76) (Synop., § 130), n. [Lat., from humore, to be moist, allied to Gr. χυμός, liquid, juice; Fr. humeur, O. Fr., Pr., Sp., & Pg. humor, It. umore.] [Written also humour.]

1Sense 1. Moisture; especially, the moisture or fluids of animal bodies; as, the humors of the eyes, &c.

2Sense 2. (Med.) (a.) A vitiated or morbid animal fluid, such as often causes an eruption on the skin. (b.) An eruptive affection of the skin; a rash. “A body full of humors.” Temple.

3Sense 3. State of mind, whether habitual or temporary (as formerly fancied to depend on the character or condition of the fluids of the body); disposition; temper; mood.

Examine how your humor is inclined, And which the ruling passion of your mind. Roscommon.

The peculiar excellence of this great writer [B. Jonson] lay in the . . . delineation of what were then called the humors—a word which may be explained to mean those innate and peculiar moral distortions and deformities of moral physiognomy with which nature has stamped the characters of individuals in every highly artificial and civilized state of society, and which are afterward exaggerated and rendered inveterate by vanity and affectation. Thos. B. Shaw.

4Sense 4. (pl.) Changing and uncertain states of mind; caprices; freaks; vagaries; whims.

Is my friend all perfection? Has he not humors to be endured? South.

5Sense 5. That quality of the imagination which gives to ideas a wild or fantastic turn, and tends to excite laughter or mirth by ludicrous images or representations.

A great deal of excellent humor was expended on the perplexities of mine host. W. Irving.

6Sense 6. A trick; a practice or habit. [Obs.]

I like not the humor of lying. Shak.

Aqueous humor (Anat.), a transparent watery fluid in the anterior part of the eye. It occupies the space between the cornea in front and the crystalline lens behind.—Crystalline humor, a lens-shaped solid body just back of the aqueous humor in the eye. It separates the aqueous and vitreous humors, and is commonly called crystalline lens.—Vitreous humor, a semi-solid, gelatinous, transparent fluid occupying the posterior part of the eye, between the crystalline lens and the retina. [See Illust. of Eye.]

Synonyms—Wit; satire; pleasantry; temper; disposition; mood; frame; whim; fancy; caprice. See WIT.

v. t. [imp. & p. p. HUMORED; p. pr. & vb. n. HUMORING.] 1. To comply with the humor of; to adapt matters so as to suit the peculiarities or exigencies of; to indulge by gentle and skillful adaptation. It is my part to invent, and that of the musicians to humor that invention. Dryden. 2. To help on by indulgence or favoring treatment; to favor. You humor me when I am sick. Pope. Syn.—To gratify; to indulge. See GRATIFY.