choler
/ˈkɒlə
/noun [mass noun]
1(In medieval science and medicine) one of the four bodily humours, identified with bile and believed to be associated with a peevish or irascible temperament. Also called yellow bile.There are also four elements: fire, earth, air and water; and four humors - choler or yellow bile, melancholer or black bile, blood and phlegm....
- While ministers talked of ‘demonic possession,’ doctors attributed mental illnesses to an imbalance of the four bodily ‘humors’: blood, phlegm, choler, and black bile.
- The humoral theory, on the other hand, viewed disease as an imbalance among the body's four basic principles: blood (the sanguine, or wet-hot, humor), phlegm (sluggish, or wet-cold), choler (dry-hot), and melancholy (dry-cold).
1.1 archaic Anger or irascibility.The big head, bright eyes, and steely mouth suggest brains, pride, and choler....
- When he says that hops purges choler, he doesn't mean in the same way as scammony does because scammony could kill you if given in excessive doses but hops will probably just put you to sleep.
Origin
Late Middle English (also denoting diarrhoea): from Old French colere 'bile, anger', from Latin cholera 'diarrhoea' (from Greek kholera), which in late Latin acquired the senses 'bile or anger', from Greek kholē 'bile'.