the.com/humor
The ability to notice the universe is absurd without letting it ruin your day.
means The quality of being funny, or the mental capacity to perceive and enjoy what's funny.
from From Latin 'humor' meaning fluid or moisture — rooted in the ancient theory that four bodily fluids (blood, phlegm, black bile, yellow bile) governed health and temperament. Being 'in good humor' once literally meant your fluids were balanced. Over centuries the word drifted from bodily chemistry to mood to mirth, keeping only the sense that your 'humor' is something that can shift, flow, or be out of whack.
- medical origin
- doctors once prescribed bloodletting to fix bad humor
- four humors
- blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile
- word shift
- meaning moved from fluids to mood by 1600s
- spelling split
- British humour keeps the old French u