humor

Forms

humor m (plural humores)^[1] Old Spanish wrote both humor and umor, and the word was often feminine: la humor de la cal.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin hūmor (“moisture, liquid; a fluid of the body”).^[5][6][7][1] The classical spelling has no ⟨h⟩; the spelling with ⟨h⟩, found in the later Roman Empire, is put down to the influence of humus (“earth”).^[1][8][9]

The Latin noun is formed from ūmeō (“to be wet”).^[10][11] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *ūmo- (“wet”) and Proto-Indo-European *uh₁-mo- (“wet”) as its base.^[11] The adjective húmedo, in whose article the DCECH treats this word, comes from the same verb.^[5]

In the Middle Ages the word passed from the fluids of the body to a person's temper, which was thought to be caused by those humours.^[5][6][12] The sense “humour, comic wit” comes from English humour, which English had taken from French humeur.^[12] Spanish also took humorista from humorist, recorded in the Academy's dictionary in 1914.^[5][6] The same Latin word is Portuguese humor and Italian umore.^[13][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Vida de San Millán (about 1230, known from an 18th-century copy) uses it of a monk whose belly was swollen with fluids: avié de los umores el vientre tan inchado.^[5][2] The CDH has an earlier hit in the Semejanza del mundo (dated c. 1223), where humor is the moisture of the sea from which clouds form.^[2][4] The BDELC dates the word 1220–1250.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose the word means moisture, as in the damp of fresh lime, and the humours of the body of medieval medicine.^[3] The DTME notes that the Latin word rendered Greek khymós, and that the theory of four humours, blood, phlegm, bile and black bile, linked character to the one that prevailed.^[14] Nebrija has umor generalmente and umor de ojos.^[8]

The sense “temper, disposition” is dated about 1600 by the BDELC, and the DCECH finds it in Mariana.^[6][5] The Diccionario de Autoridades has three senses: a liquid body; the effect of a prevailing humour, as in humor melancólico; and temper or nature, quoting Mariana.^[15] Buen humor and mal humor are first defined in the Academy's dictionary of 1869, and “jollity, wit” in 1884.^[16][17] In 2001 the Academy marked the bodily sense as old, and the modern dictionary gives the sense “humorismo”, the comic way of presenting reality.^[18][7]

In Colombia, Peru and Paraguay humor is a strong body odour.^[19] In Leonese, mostly in the plural, it means rheumatism or paralysis.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – humor “moisture” in the Semejanza del mundo.^[2]
• 1220–1250 – umores in Berceo's Vida de San Millán.^[5][6]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of the humours of the body.^[3]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[21]
• c. 1600 – first record of the sense “temper, disposition”.^[6]
• 1734 – bien humorado and mal humorado in the Diccionario de Autoridades.^[6][5]
• 1869 – the Academy defines buen humor and mal humor.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “jollity, wit”.^[17]
• 1914 – humorista and humorismo enter the Academy's dictionary.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Temper (genio), nature or disposition, especially as shown outwardly; mood: Hoy está de un humor excelente.^[7][1]
2. Jollity, wit (agudeza).^[7]
3. The frame of mind in which one is to do something.^[7]
4. A good disposition to do something.^[7]
5. Humour (humorismo): a way of presenting reality that brings out its comic side.^[7][1]
6. (physiology) Each of the fluids of a living organism; a humour of old medicine.^[7][14]
7. (psychology) An emotional state that lasts for some time.^[7]
8. (Colombia, Peru, Paraguay) Strong body odour.^[19]

Word family

• humorismo
• humorista
• humorístico
• humoroso
• malhumor
• humorada

Related words

• húmedo
• Latin ūmor
• French humeur

Usage notes

Common phrases are estar de buen humor and estar de mal humor, sentido del humor and humor negro “black humour”; in anatomy humor acuoso is the aqueous humour of the eye.^[7][1][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. humor
3. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. humor
4. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. humor
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 425
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. húmedo
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. humor
8. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. humor
9. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 359
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ūmor
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. humor
13. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1816
14. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. humor
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 192
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 422
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 580
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. humor
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. humor
20. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. humor
21. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. humor
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. humor