Etymograph

English

humour

Humour comes from Latin hūmor ‘liquid, fluid, humour’, from ūmeō ‘to be moist, wet or damp’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wegʷ-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wegʷ-‘wet, moist’root as named
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ūmo-‘wet’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEūmeōas hūmeō‘to be moist, wet or damp’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEhūmor‘liquid, fluid, humour’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400humor
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500humour‘A "cardinal humour"’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1597same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*wegʷ-‘wet, moist’root as named
  2. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*ūmo-‘wet’reconstructed
  3. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEūmeōas hūmeō‘to be moist, wet or damp’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEhūmor‘liquid, fluid, humour’
  5. Old Frenchc. 842–1400humor
  6. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500humour‘A "cardinal humour"’
  7. Englishearliest quotation c. 1597same form

Earliest quotation: c. 1597, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wiues of Windsor: “I like not the humour of lying.”

The story

The h in these words, which was silent in late Classical Latin, is folk etymological, due to the erroneous association with the word humus (‘soil’).folk etymology The source marks this as unproven or a folk etymology. Quoted, not asserted. The shift in meaning "liquid" > "mood" is attributed to the classical system of physiology, where human behaviour is regulated by four bodily humours (fluids). The sense "mood" gave rise to the verb sense "to give in to someone's mood or whim" and, by narrowing of meaning, the sense "wit".

Linked words

through Latin ūmeō ‘to be moist, wet or damp’

humidity, humid, 2 more

through Latin hūmor ‘liquid, fluid, humour’

humoral

Today it means

noun The quality of being amusing, comical, funny.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *wegʷ- / humour

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