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William Star
Eng101/Lisi
May 15, 2006
A Very Fluid Sense of Humor
Writers have often remarked on the difficulty of humor. For the student, tackling its
intricacies is not a laughing matter. Summarizing its course through history is not an easy task.
Offering a serious, compelling analysis of its evolution is harder still. Doing so, while
maintaining strict academic style, would simply take all the fun out of it. What writer could do it
without coming to tears? Who could be completely serious about a word whose history very
nearly begins and ends on body fluids?
It is hard to beat the success of such liquid responses to humor as “I laughed so hard I
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cried ,” “I nearly peed in my pants,” “I dropped a load,” or “I burst a vein.” What is it that causes
them? That ancient riddle has puzzled many a great thinker...and lowly comedian. Initially,
humor was not about laughter. It was about fluids. Perhaps humor will always be found in fluids.
The Oxford English Dictionary Online tells us that the Latin root of the noun humor translates as
liquid or moisture, thus providing the earliest sense of the word as "moisture; damp exhalation;
vapour" (“Humor” 1). The OED Online does not have a dry sense of humor.
Originally encompassing all moisture, humor came to be about specific liquids. It meant
something very different to the father of medicine, an ancient Greek named Hippocrates. Best
known for an oath, he may or may not have been a practical joker. His influential doctrine on
physiology was not amusing anecdotes, not odd twists and plays on language, and not about
jokes or pranks. It did, however, offer humanity its first glimpse of a body fluid sense of humor.
Hippocrates long-standing basis for the practice of medicine was built around four
liquids: blood, phlegm (snot), yellow bile (pee), and black bile (the other potty humor this liquid
often takes a more solid form). Hippocrates called these fluids the four humors and theorized that
a healthy body depends on a proper proportion of each (Durant, Part II 344). Another dominating
influence on medicine, a moody Roman named Claudius Galen, expanded on Hippocrates’
humorous doctrine adding “a dash of Pythagoras’ four elements (earth, air, fire and water)”
(Durant, Part III 507). He expounded that a relative proportion of the four humors correspond to
four temperaments2: sanguine (amused), phlegmatic (snotty), choleric (pissed off), melancholic
(down in the dumps, life’s in the crapper).
Galen’s view of temperament may have given the French their modern hemeur, which the
OED Online translates as mood (“Humor” 1). A good mood comes from good-humor: healthy,
circulating, life-giving blood. Bad moods or ill-humor are caused by the other fluids: the wastes,
the spoiled, and the unseemly. Hippocrates and Galen’s ideas of humor were practiced for a
millennium and still have influence in the studies of glandular secretions (Durant Part III 508).
Their success may be evidence that humor truly is the best medicine.
Euphemism and Humor: Greek meets Latin
Euphemism makes distasteful topics palatable and facilitates difficult conversation. The
OED Online defines it as “that figure of speech which consists in the substitution of a word or
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A very early sense of humor was related to the fluids in and around the eyes, the latter being a cause for reflection.
This sense may have given origin to the “twinkle in the eye” of the amused or mischievous.
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“In modern use the term temperament and the names of the four temperaments continue, without any theory of
combination of humours” (“Temperament”).
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expression of comparatively favourable implication or less unpleasant associations, instead of the
harsher or more offensive one that would more precisely3 designate what is intended”
(“Euphemism”). In the search for less offensive speech, humor is often applied. But which
sense? Is it that body fluids are a source of discomfort, or that amusing phrases make unpleasant
things more appealing? Suppose that Hippocrates and Galen had met for dinner one night, the
former proving his theories on medicine by living a very, very long life. Imagine that they shared
a celebratory night, congratulating each other on their medical successes with hearty toasts and
intoxicating wine. After several toasts and more glasses of wine, Hippocrates says to Galen,
“I’ve got to see a man about a horse.” Would he have been using a modern sense of humor in
place of an ancient one?
Has euphemism always been a part of civilized society? The OED Online implies this
notion by offering that its etymology is rooted in Greek (“Euphemism”). However, the question
has not been fully explored. Civilization is much older than Greece. Perhaps in an earlier society,
people did not shy away from uncomfortable subjects, and we are mistaken in our notion that
unpleasant conversation is uncivilized. It is not difficult to speculate that laughter is older than
civilization. Humor, however it was known, likely began with humanity’s earliest attempts to
communicate; earlier still when physical humor is considered. Has a burnt finger, a bump on the
head, tripping, or falling down been funny forever? Have accidents always made people
uncomfortable? In that case, euphemism may be older than civilization as well.
Maybe it was euphemism that caused humor’s meaning to evolve from its use in
medicine to its current sense. As amusing phrases for sickness, disease, body functions, and body
fluid grew more common, they came to be synonymous with the terms they replaced. Eventually,
the original terms became obsolete. Could it be that euphemism was so often applied during
discussions of the proportion of one’s humor that comedy became synonymous with its ancient
sense, ultimately giving humor its modern sense?
Hippocrates’ humor and Galen's temperament may yet give cause for laughter. The OED
Online again provides a source. Beginning with blood, “that vital fluid on which life depends”
and the “supposed seat of emotion” (“Blood”), the predominance of this fluid was said to
indicate “a courageous, hopeful, and amorous disposition” (“Sanguine”). The next is phlegm,
“the thick viscid fluid or semi fluid substance secreted by the mucous membranes...and supposed
when predominant to cause constitutional indolence or apathy” (“Phlegm”). Black and yellow
bile cause some confusion.
A search of the OED Online for yellow bile returns no results. A search for black bile
returns an entry in the definition of bile that suggests the word atrabile instead. However, bile’s
definition is directly related to yellow bile: “the fluid secreted by the liver (also known as
gall)...of a brownish yellow colour...commonly termed choler” (“Bile”). Examining gall and
choler, the two terms are found to be synonymous, and a predominance of yellow bile gives
shortness of temper, rancor, or bitter disposition (“Choler”, “Gall”). Returning to atrabile, it is
defined: “[literally] Black bile, ‘a term anciently used for an imaginary fluid, thick, black, and
acrid,’ supposed to be secreted by the renal or atrabiliary glands, or by the spleen” (“Atrabile”).
The surprise end to this search is found in the definition of spleen. Here is “the seat of laughter”
(“Spleen”)4.
Humor Me
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A modern sense of humor exploits the imprecision of language, hence riddles and puns.
“That ‘spleens it.” Ricky Ricardo
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The OED Online’s early sense of humor relates it to fluids or liquids. Such meanings may
now be obsolete, yet fluids remain humorous. A final entry on humor offered by the OED Online
is “that quality of action, speech, or writing, which excites amusement; oddity, jocularity,
facetiousness, comicality, fun” or “the faculty of perceiving what is ludicrous or amusing, or of
expressing it in speech, writing, or other composition” (“Humor” 2). Reflecting5 on this entry,
the meaning of humor seems to have narrowed over time, drying out as it evolved.
Encompassing all moisture at first, narrowing to four specific fluids, now perhaps just one. Of
the four fluids, black bile appears to be its source. I’d have guessed joyous, life-giving blood, but
I admit potty humor gets a laugh almost every time.
Take for example the story of Charlie, a young student who interrupts his teacher in the
midst of a lesson to ask permission to go to the bathroom. His teacher responds, “Charlie if you
can recite the alphabet, I’ll let you go.”
Charlie recites, “abcdefghijklmnoqrstuvwxyz.”
His teacher praises him, “That’s very good Charlie, but what happened to the p?”
A tearful Charlie replied, “It ran down my leg.”
Clear evidence humor can still be found in body fluids. Here’s a tip: next time you’re
shopping around for a physician, inquire into the doctor’s sense of humor, if he or she responds
with a joke, you might want to keep searching.
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Academic essays are often causes for reflection. For another cause, see footnote 1.
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Works Cited
“Atrabile.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Bile.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Blood.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Choler.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
Durant, Will. The Story of Civilization Part II: The Life of Greece. New York: Simon and
Schuster, 1939.
---. The Story of Civilization Part III: Caesar and Christ. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1944.
“Euphemism.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Gall.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Humor.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Phlegm.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Sanguine.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Spleen.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.
“Temperament.” The Oxford English Dictionary Online. 1989 ed. 18 June 2017
<http://dictionary.oed.com>.