2020-10-13 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด H - Humor & wit


Revision H

2020-10-13 

ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด H -  Humor & wit

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Dictionary.com

ออกเสียง Humor (British = Humour) = ‘HYOO-mer’

THE NEW DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL LITERACY, THIRD EDITION

NOTES FOR HUMOR

Physicians in the Middle Ages believed that

four principal humors — blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile

controlled body functions

and that a person's temperament resulted from the humor that

was most prevalent in the body.

Sanguine people were controlled by blood,

phlegmatic people by phlegm,

choleric people by yellow bile (also known as “choler”),

and melancholic people by black bile (also known as “melancholy”).

Dictionary.com

SYNONYM STUDY FOR HUMOR

Humor, wit refer to an ability to perceive and express a sense of the clever or amusing.

Humor consists principally in the recognition and expression of incongruities or peculiarities present in a situation or character.

It is frequently used to illustrate some fundamental absurdity in human nature or conduct,

and is generally thought of as more kindlythan wit:

a genial and mellow type of humor; his biting wit.

Wit is a purely intellectual manifestation ofcleverness and quickness of apprehension in discovering apparent analogies between things really unlike, and expressing them in brief, diverting, and often sharp observations or remarks.

Humor, gratify, indulge

imply attempting to satisfy the wishes or whims of (oneself or others).

To humor is to comply with a mood, fancy, or caprice,

as in order to satisfy, soothe, or manage: to humor an invalid.

To gratify is to please by satisfying the likings or desires:

to gratify someone by praising him.

Indulge suggests a yielding to wishesthat perhaps should not be given in to:

to indulge an unreasonable demand; to indulge an irresponsible son.

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary,

hu′mor•less, adj.

hu′mor•less•ly, adv.

hu′mor•less•ness, n.

syn:

humor, wit refer to an ability to perceive and express a sense of the clever or amusing.

humor consists principally in the recognition and expression of incongruities or peculiarities present in a situation or character.

It is frequently used to illustrate some fundamental absurdity in human nature or conduct, and is generally thought of as a kindly trait:

a genial and mellow type of humor.

wit is a purely intellectual, often spontaneous, manifestation of cleverness and quickness in discovering analogies between things really unlike, and expressing them in brief, diverting, and often sharp observations: biting wit.

The American Heritage® Student Science Dictionary,

hu·mor = (hyo͞o′mər)

One of the four fluids of the body

—blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile

—whose relative proportions were thought in ancient and medieval medicine to determine general health and character.

Word History

Doctors in ancient times and in the Middle Ages thought the human body contained a mixture of four substances, called humors,

that determined a person's health and character.

The humors were fluids (humor means "fluid" in Latin),

namely blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile.

Illnesses were thought to be caused by an imbalance in the humors, as were defects in personality.

Too much black bile, for example, was thought to make one gloomy, and too much yellow bile was thought to make one short-tempered.

Modern English has words referring to these moods that come from the Greek words for the relevant humors.

We call a gloomy person melancholic, from the Greek term for "black bile,"

and we call a short-tempered person choleric, from the Greek word for "yellow bile." Our word humorous, in fact, originally meant "having changeable moods due to the influence of different humors."

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language

Word History:

Physicians in ancient and medieval times thought that the human body contained a mixture of four fluids and that a person's health and temperament depended upon the relative proportions of these fluids within the body.

In Middle English, these fluids were called humours, ultimately from the Latin word hūmor, "fluid." (Latin hūmor, also found in the variant form ūmor, contains the same root found in the Latin adjective hūmidus, "moist," whence English humid.)

Each of the four humors, namely blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile, or sanguis, phlegma, melancholia, and choler in Latin, were defined as warm or cold and moist or dry and associated with one of the four elements, and a superfluity of any one humor was thought to produce a characteristic disposition.

Blood, the warm, moist humor associated with the element fire, caused a ruddy complexion and a sanguine disposition, marked by courage, hope, and a readiness to fall in love.

Phlegm, the cold, moist humor associated with water, made one phlegmatic, or calm, sluggish, and unemotional.

Black bile, the cold, dry humor associated with earth, caused depression, or melancholy.

Yellow bile, the warm, dry humor associated with the air, made one choleric, or easily angered.

By the late 1500s, the word humour had become synonymous with temperament and was used especially to refer to one's temperament when dominated by one of the four humors.

As an extension of this sense, humour came to indicate changing moods or states of mind, particularly whimsical and capricious fancies that, when revealed in action, provide amusement to others.

In the 1600s, humour (now spelled humor in the United States) at last came to mean the quality that makes something amusing or laughable, as well as the ability to amuse others and to appreciate those things that are amusing—that is, a sense of humor.

Dictionary of Problem Words and Expression

Humor & wit

Humor may be defined as a comic quality causing amusement:

“The humor of his predicament caused him to laugh at himself.”

Humor is also applied to the abilities and faculties of seeing, understanding, appreciating, and expressing what is amusing and laughter-producing and to a frame of mind (in a good humor that day).

Humor consists largely of a recognition and expression of oddities, peculiarities, and absurdities in an act or situation.

Wit is derived from an Old English word, witan, meaning “to know,” and still possesses the idea of understanding and recognizing.

Wit is an intellectual display of cleverness and quickness of perception,

whereas humor is less obviously mental in its approaches to absurdity and incongruity.

Wit plays with words;

humor rises from situations or incidents and involvesa sympathetic and even kindly recognition of the follies and stupidities of mankind.

In Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I, Falstaff demonstrates his wit through the use of puns and verbal fencing. His bluffing, his laughter at himself, and his recognition of the ludicrousness of various situations are examples of humor.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Choose the Right Synonym for wit

Noun

WIT, HUMOR, IRONY, SARCASM, SATIRE, REPARTEE

mean a mode of expression intended to arouseamusement.

WIT suggests the power to evoke laughter by remarks showing verbal felicity or ingenuity and swift perception especially of the incongruous. a playful wit

HUMOR implies an ability to perceive the ludicrous, the comical, and the absurd in human life and to express these usually without bitterness. a sense of humor

IRONY applies to a manner of expression in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is seemingly expressed. the irony of the title

SARCASM applies to expression frequently in the form of irony that is intended to cut or wound. given to heartless sarcasm

SATIRE applies to writing that exposes or ridicules conduct, doctrines, or institutions either by direct criticism or more often through irony, parody, or caricature. a satire on the Congress

REPARTEE implies the power of answering quickly, pointedly, or wittily. a dinner guest noted for repartee

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Choose the Right Synonym for humor

Noun

WIT, HUMOR, IRONY, SARCASM, SATIRE, REPARTEE

mean a mode of expression intended to arouse amusement.

WIT suggests the power to evoke laughter by remarks showing verbal felicity or ingenuity and swift perception especially of the incongruous. a playful wit

HUMOR implies an ability to perceive the ludicrous, the comical, and the absurd in human life and to express these usually without bitterness. a sense of humor

IRONY applies to a manner of expression in which the intended meaning is the opposite of what is seemingly expressed. the irony of the title

SARCASM applies to expression frequently in the form of irony that is intended to cut or wound. given to heartless sarcasm

SATIRE applies to writing that exposes or ridicules conduct, doctrines, or institutions either by direct criticism or more often through irony, parody, or caricature. a satire on the Congress

REPARTEE implies the power of answering quickly, pointedly, or wittily. a dinner guest noted for repartee

Verb

INDULGE, PAMPER, HUMOR, SPOIL, BABY, MOLLYCODDLE

mean to show undue favor to a person's desires and feelings.

INDULGE implies excessive compliance and weakness in gratifying another's or one's own desires. indulged myself with food at the slightest excuse

PAMPER implies inordinate gratification of desire for luxury and comfort with consequent enervating effect. pampered by the amenities of modern living

HUMOR stresses a yielding to a person's moods or whims. humored him by letting him tell the story

SPOIL stresses the injurious effects on character by indulging or pampering. foolish parents spoil their children

BABY suggests excessive care, attention, or solicitude. babying students by grading too easily

MOLLYCODDLE suggests an excessive degree of care and attention to another's health or welfare. refused to mollycoddle her malingering son

Did You Know?

In the Middle Ages it was believed that a person’s health and disposition were the result of a balance of four fluids in the body.

These fluids were called humors, from the Latin word humor, meaning “moisture.”

The fluids were blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile.

If a person had a cheerful disposition, it was said to be a result of an excess of blood.

A sluggish disposition was the result of an excess of phlegm.

A hot-tempered disposition was said to be caused by an excess of yellow bile, and the disposition of a gloomy person was the result of an excess of black bile.

In time, humor came to be used as a general term for “disposition or temperament.” From this developed the sense of “a changeable state of mind” or “mood.”

More recently humor has come to refer tosomething that is funny.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Words at Play

Humorless Words for the Bodily Humors

From the sanguine to the downright choleric

Humor

noun, in medieval physiology : a fluid or juice of an animal or plant specifically :

one of the four fluids entering into the constitution of the body and determining by their relative proportions a person's health and temperament

That's right: before humor was funny, a humor was something that could be described as a fluid or juice of an animal or plant. It was the Middle Ages, after all, and things could be downright medieval sometimes.

It all got started long before medieval times though. While it was still the established thinking in the European Middle Ages, the physiological theory of the humors dates to ancient Greece, with the four cardinal humors being blood, phlegm, choler (aka yellow bile), and melancholy (aka black bile). The particular mixture of the four humors in a particular individual was thought to determine that person's temperament as well as their mental and physical qualities. Ideally, you wanted to have a perfectly proportioned mixture of the four humors; if you didn't, you'd skew toward being too much one way or not enough another. (More on that below).

The word humor traces back to Latin humor or umor, meaning "moisture," which gets us pretty easily to the "fluid" meaning of the English word, but how did we get to the funny-related meanings of humor? Well, the physiological use referring to the four cardinal humors eased into a use of humor to mean "temperament, disposition," which led to "mood," which got us to "whim, fancy," and eventually to a plural use referring to actions that reveal the oddities or quirks of human temperament—such humors being especially suited for comedic theatrical presentation. The audience saw the humors of a character and they were whimsical, eccentric, and often funny. Soon after, the sense referring to the ability to be funny or to be amused by things that are funny developed.

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