humeur

Pronunciation

• IPA: /y.mœʁ/^[1]

Forms

humeur f (plural humeurs)^[1] Old French humor, humour;^[2][1] humeur from the 13th century.^[2][1] The word hesitated between masculine and feminine until the 17th century.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ūmor (“moisture; liquid; a bodily fluid”), derived from ūmeō (“to be moist”), the source of humide.^[3][5][6] It is a doublet of English humour, which English took from the Old French word.^[1] Cognate with Old Occitan humor, Spanish humor and Italian umore.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Philippe de Thaon (1119) uses humur for water, the element necessary to life, as a symbol of love: Por l'humur entendum L'amur.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

After 1150 it meant moisture, a sense that lasted until the 18th century.^[3] About 1175 Benoît de Sainte-Maure uses it for a liquid of the human body, usually in the plural in old medicine, and Brunetto Latini (about 1265) describes the four humours, choler, phlegm, melancholy and blood, whose balance was thought to make the temperament.^[7][3] Hence, from the 15th century, the set of tendencies that form a character, les humeurs in Ronsard (1555), and the whims of a person (Montaigne, 1580, Brantôme).^[3][2][7] From 1578 it also meant a passing state of mind, whence bonne humeur (1625), mauvaise humeur (Malherbe), humeur noire (Molière, 1666) and être d'humeur à, to be in the mood for.^[2][3] Medicine keeps the old sense in humeur aqueuse (Paré, about 1560) and humeur vitrée (1680).^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1119 – Humur, water, in Philippe de Thaon.^[7]
• c. 1175 – A bodily fluid, in Benoît de Sainte-Maure.^[7]
• c. 1265 – The four humours, in Brunetto Latini.^[7]
• 1555 – Les humeurs, dispositions, in Ronsard.^[7][3]
• 1578 – A passing mood.^[3]
• 1625 – Bonne humeur.^[2]
• 1666 – Humeur noire, in Molière.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The dominant, lasting disposition of a person; temperament: une jeune fille d'humeur gaie, incompatibilité d'humeur.^[8][9]
2. A passing state of mind, mood: être de bonne, de mauvaise humeur, être d'humeur à, to be in the mood for.^[8][2]
3. (psychiatry) The basic affective disposition: trouble de l'humeur.^[8][1]
4. (old medicine) A bodily fluid, les quatre humeurs, blood, phlegm, bile and black bile.^[10][9]
5. (anatomy) Humeur aqueuse, humeur vitrée: the fluids of the eye.^[8][10]

Related words

• humide
• humoral
• humour
• Latin ūmor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e f g Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
8. ^ a b c d Dictionnaire de français Larousse, larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais (accessed 2024)
9. ^ a b Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Dictionnaire Le Robert en ligne, dictionnaire.lerobert.com (accessed 2024)