Thursday, January 11, 2007

WORD A DAY

BILIOUS: 1a: of or relating to bile b: marked by or suffering from liver dysfunction 2: of or indicative of a peevish ill-natured disposition

"Bilious" is one of several words whose origins trace to the old belief that four bodily humors (black bile, yellow bile, phelgm, and blood) control temperament. Like "sanguine" (a blood-based disposition), "phlegmatic" (a phelgm-driven character), and "melancholy" (associated with black bile), "bilious" describes a personality associated with an excess of one of the humors - in this case, yellow bile. It derives ultimately from bilis, Latin for "bile," and has been used since the 1500s in English to refer to things related to bile (the fluid secreted by the liver), as well as to the sort of temperament once thought to be bile-generated. In the past, bile was also called choler, which gives us the adjective "choleric," a synonym of "bilious."

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