Etymology: < (i) Anglo-Norman humor, humour, humur, humure, hemur, homur, umor, umour, Anglo-Norman and Middle French humour, Middle French humeur, umeur (French humeur and humour , with semantic differentiation: see below) any kind of liquid (1119 in Old French), any bodily fluid (c1175), any of four fluids of the body believed to determine the state of health and the temperament of a person or animal (13th cent.; 1314 denoting an altered or abnormal form of any of these fluids), moisture (a1220), the sap or juice of a plant or plant part (first half of the 13th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman, c1330 in continental French), either of two transparent substances filling the anterior and posterior chambers of the eye (1314), mental disposition, temperament (15th cent.; the senses ‘temporary state of mind or feeling, mood, temper’ and ‘caprice, quirk’ appear to be attested later in French than in English: 1555 and a1614, respectively), and its etymon (ii) classical Latin hūmor, ūmor moisture, fluid, bodily fluid or discharge, fluid in plants, sap, liquid < ūmēre to be moist (of uncertain origin: see note) + -or -or suffix.Further etymology. Classical Latin ūmēre has been associated with classical Latin ūvidus uvid adj. and ancient Greek ὑγρός wet, moist (see hygro- comb. form), but this has recently been rejected (on both formal and semantic grounds) in favour of a connection with Lithuanian ūmus quick-tempered, hasty. The h of classical Latin hūmor is probably due to the folk etymology found in ancient authors (e.g. Varro) that derived the word from humus soil (see humus n.). Parallels in other languages. The Latin noun was borrowed into other Romance and Germanic languages at an early date. Compare Old Occitan umor , Catalan humor (12th cent.), Spanish humor (first half of the 13th cent.), Portuguese humor (14th cent.; 13th cent. as †umor ), Italian umore (a1306), and also Middle Dutch humoor , humōre , humūre , humuer (Dutch humeur and humor , with semantic differentiation: see below), Middle Low German hūmeres , hūmoren (plural) bodily fluids collectively, German Humor (early 16th cent.). The course of the word’s semantic development, from ‘fluid’, ‘four cardinal humours’, to senses relating to moods, temperaments, and caprices, and finally to amusement or comedy, is paralleled in all of these languages. Formal differentiation in modern French and Dutch. The modern French word in all senses except sense 9 is humeur . In sense 9, French humour (1725 as †houmour ) was reborrowed < English. Similarly, in Dutch, humeur is used in all senses except sense 9, while humor (1839 in sense 9b, 1903 in sense 9a) is a reborrowing < English. Specific senses. The medical use of classical Latin ūmor (compare sense 1a) is after the corresponding use of ancient Greek χύμος chyme n. With sense 1c compare post-classical Latin humor albugineus aqueous humour of eye, humor crystallinus lens of eye (both 13th cent. in British sources). Spelling and pronunciation history. With the spelling compare discussion at -or suffix. Derivatives formed with native English suffixes (e.g. humoured adj., humourless adj., humoursome adj.) show -our- in the modern standard British spelling, like the parent noun and verb. Derivatives or loans from foreign languages which are formed with suffixes ultimately of Latin or Greek origin, e.g. humoral adj., humorist n., humorous adj., show -or- as in Latin. These spelling patterns are attested in dictionaries since at least the mid 18th cent. The pronunciation with initial /h/ is a spelling pronunciation of relatively recent origin. It is not recorded before the first half of the 19th cent., and even then at first only by a minority of dictionaries, e.g. Enfield (ed. 9, 1825), Webster (1828), and Worcester (1830), in the latter two alongside the older variant without the initial spirant. From the late 19th cent., both British and U.S. dictionaries (including N.E.D. (1899)) give /hj-/ alongside /j-/. Webster (1934) notes: ‘The h , formerly silent, is now generally pronounced, both in England and the United States, although many good speakers omit it, esp. in the senses relating to mental states, and in the verb’. 20th-cent. British pronouncing dictionaries either label the variant without /h/ ‘old-fashioned’ or characterize it as non-RP. Compare discussion at H n.

Etymology: < humour n. Compare earlier humoured adj.